My bush beans are trying to vine as well

I've never grown bush beans before, so I don't really know how big they are supposed to get, and I only grew pole beans once, many years ago, and don't remember their behavior well enough to compare.

The beans cascading out of the box below were labeled yellow bush beans. This is 6 weeks after planting:



These are Fordhook bush limas, not as out of control but still big (row 3, 2 right squares):



I planted these 9 per square by the book. They are completely shading everything in row 2 and starting to climb the cages of the row 4 peppers/eggplant. (you can only see the chard in the one photo because I pushed the beans back)

Is this normal for "bush" beans? It certainly isn't what I was expecting.

Here's the entire box for perspective:

My bush beans are climbing too. These are Burpee's Tenderpod. I haave tied string around them to try keeping them in their square but they are also climbing. There is a 2'(24") tomato stake in there somewhere & they are looking for something taller aand cascading over the side. This is one square with 8 or 9 seeds planted on tax day, April 15th, long with my Nantes carrots for Carrot Week that are just behind the beans to the right..

Uprooted & Lindacol,

I would trade bush beans with you in a heartbeat! My bush beans were stunted and turned yellow. I saw a lot of posts this year about bush beans that turned yellow and didn't do well.

I don't really know if it's normal that they vine out that much, but probably one of the more experienced sfgardeners here will reply with an answer to that. My Southern Peas grew more and started vining more than I realized they would and FarmerValerie let me know that hers do that, too, sometimes and that she just ties them up with string a bit so they don't fall over. Probably they were planted a little too close (9 per square) and had to grow taller than usual in competition for the sun. I think I'll cut back on how many I plant per square next time.

If I were lucky enough to have bush beans that looked that healthy, I would probably try to fix some string around them to contain them a bit and help support them. You might want to consider cutting back a little on how many you plant per square of your bush beans next time to see if that works better. I think a lot of gardening is adapting to differences caused by local climate, veggie varieties, etc. Sometimes the recommended spacing might not work for everyone.

Best of luck with your gardening!

Lindacol, I will probably try some similar solutions. Sherryeo, sorry you have had problems with your beans. Mine started out with some issues (stunted, misshapen leaves, sun scald) but they seem to have overcome that as you have noted! Now I just have to try to contain them enough that the surrounding plants have a fighting chance.

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

Kristina

This the the 1st time I have ever grown beans and the 1st time I have gardened in a very long time. This is my 1st SFG and is the only way I can grow anything with out the gophers getting it. My beds have wire bottoms and my cantelope are planted in gopher baskets.

I am very please with the beans so far and impressed with their growth. The bush beans haven't started flowering yet but the pole beans planted at the same time are flowering (strange because the bush ones are listed as 50 days to harvest and the pole ones are 60 days) & it is about 60 days now.

They are already tied with 2 strings around them. Think I will get one of those tall twirly tomato stakes for them. I have harvested almost all the carrots in the square to the right so it doesn't matter if they intrude on that square. The kale on the other side keeps getting chewed up so it doesn't matter to me if they go that way either. The nantes carrots are holding their own behind the beans.

Next time I plant any kind of beans it will be 6 or fewer to a square. My pole beans (far right edge of the picture) are tyed and trellised and overflowing everywhere too.

My bush beans (green beans and limas) are exploding out of their cage as well. I planted 9 to a square, and like others here I'll be planting less per square next year (I'm thinking 6). On the up side, they're helping to shade my carrots and lettuce, so I'm not complaining...yet. I was looking at my plants today and wondering how on earth I'm supposed to find the beans at harvest time.

~Lu

my bush beans are too very....bushy . I do have a few that start to vine, but I just snipped them back and that was that. If I don't tie them in with twine, though, they would be falling all over the place.

I honestly let mine vine. I don't care what they do as long as they produce. I just stick a pole in the ground and let'em go.

They're pretty big, but they are producing, so I'm happy -- ate my first harvest today steamed w/ butter and savory. Yummm. . . .




Just pretend the bed below is neatly edged and mulched, okay? ;-)



I've put up some little bamboo stakes you can't see, but I haven't tied them behind the stakes yet -- however they've kept the beans off the row in front of it to some extent.

I'm about to plant bush beans for the first time. So glad you posted this topic and thanks for this info!

Total aside... I love that you have your SFG in your front yard!

Do you get a lot of folks asking you about it?

Marc, good luck with the beans! Mine started out gangbusters, got all sickly looking and then as you see recovered just fine. I have a very stand back and see what happens approach to gardening. I'm hoping the lima beans, which have flowers but no fruit on them yet, produce well.

I so wish I had a sunny backyard where I could put many boxes, but I don't. I live in a neighborhood w/ an association and my box is built on the lower side of a slope, one of the only sunny spots in the yard. It's not quite as visible from the street as it seems it might be from the photos, which is what I was aiming for because I don't think veggies in the front yard are "legal" in terms of the covenant. Anyway, I don't think people have a good sense of what it is, unless they pull into our driveway, so nope, I really haven't been asked much about it.

Uprooted wrote:I don't think veggies in the front yard are "legal" in terms of the covenant.

We have the same language in our Home Owner Association materials. Only decorative plants in the front. Queue 'bad to the bone' music... I was thinking of living life on the edge and putting some veggies in full view. I know, crazy talk!

Oh my gosh!

My bush beans are going crazy too but I am not complaining.

Last yr they did ok so it looks as though I will get a ton of bush beans this year!

I planted 9 to a square last yr as well as this yr. Last yr we had a summer drought so we were lucky to get anything.

This yr we had alot of rain in the spring, hot now and they are vining, vining and vining - so I will keep planting 9 to a square since you never know what you will get.....

Dunkinjean

All four varieties of my bush beans are going nuts and growing much taller than in the past. They also appear to be vining, but as long as I can keep them corraled with a bit of string to protect the neighbors from being shaded out, I am quite happy.

Last years beans were not as exuberant, nor did they have as many flowers, so I am anticipating an abundant harvest. Just planting my second round of bush beans to extend that harvest.

I just sort of ended up giving up and letting them do what they wanted. Row in front was completely shaded and grown over, but some of the chard said "tough, I'm growing anyway!" Carrots and beets, well, they're kinda sad. Anyway, my yellow beans (2 squares) are almost done and we've had several good meals from those 18 plants and now the limas are starting to produce (they are the ones shading the carrots and beets).

Better overabundance than underabundance! This has been a fun first SFG year so far.

I am preparing to do a third planting of beans, mine just have not made, except for my piintos which so far (second planting) are starting to look good, and my red beans, but not producing.

I do 5 per square, and then put 4 stakes in the square, wrap 2-3 rounds of string and let them go. If you have several squares you won't need 4 stakes in each square, some will just need 2. Down here, bush beans and southern peas don't "vine" they "run". The old timers call those things that look like vines, runners, so that's what I have started calling them, and boy oh boy are my southern peas running away from me. The black eyed peas are actually climbing a trelis, just like a vine would, they naturally migrated to it too, there is an empty square between them and the trelis, and they just ran right over there and started weaving in and out of the trelis, just like a morning glory will do on its own.

Some years are good years for one thing and bad for another, next year its something else that does not produce well, could be weather, could be old seed, could be bad seed, or something missing in the soil. This year I'm not getting the results I did for the past 2-3 years with my basil, no biggie, next year may be better. Please keep us posted on the beans!!!

My bush beans are also still vining and growing.

The only problem is that I do not see any flowers on them at all!

Does anyone know why that would be?

Tks!

Dunkinjean wrote:My bush beans are also still vining and growing.

The only problem is that I do not see any flowers on them at all!

Does anyone know why that would be?

Tks!

What did you plant? When did you plant them? how has the weather and watering been?

Camprn:

I planted Burpee Blue Lake Green Bush Snap Beans on 4/29/11.

It has been hot, hot hot...90's.

I have been watering almost everyday.