How to Grow Pole Beans (Snap Beans) • From Seed to Harvest

Hi, I'm Niki Jabbour and I love growing snap beans in my vegetable garden. They're easy, reliable and the tender pods can be enjoyed raw or cooked.

Pole vs. Snap Beans

Snap beans may be produced on compact plants and are called bush beans, or on tall vining plants, and are called pole beans. Both make excellent garden crops, but if I'm given the option, I prefer to grow pole beans. They use less square footage in the garden and easily double the production of bush beans when given the same amount of space. Pole beans also have a longer harvest period, especially if you stay on top of harvesting the pods and yield for about six weeks.

Pole Bean Varieties

There are many excellent varieties of pole beans you can grow. My favorites include Fortex and Seychelles, and most go from seed to harvest in 55 to 65 days, depending on the variety. Here I have Monte Gusto, a productive and delicious yellow wax type bean and Carminat, a purple-podded pole bean with slender pods that are picked when they're about eight inches long.

How to Grow Pole Beans

Now let's look at when to plant pole beans. Beans are a warm season vegetable and direct seeded after the last frost date has passed in late spring, although I also sow a second crop 4 to 6 weeks later for an extended harvest. You can grow beans in an in-ground garden, in raised beds, or even in containers. Wherever you choose to plant them, the site should offer full sun and fertile well-draining soil.

Depending on the varieties you're growing, pole bean vines can grow 5 to 9ft in length. You're going to need some type of sturdy support for the vines, and they should be set up before you sow the seeds. You can DIY pole bean supports or buy trellises. I like to grow my pole beans on tunnels and vertical trellises made from wire mesh panels or on bamboo trellises.

Bamboo trellises are popular with gardeners and are quick and easy to build – using 5 or 6 bamboo posts to secure them together at the top and spread the bottoms of the posts into a 3 to 4ft diameter circle. If growing pole beans on a bamboo trellis, plant 4 to 6 seeds around the base of each post. And planting them along a vertical trellis, plant them three inches apart.

Press the seeds one inch deep into the soil, and once they're planted, label with the variety name and water well. Continue to maintain a lightly moist soil until the seeds germinate and the young plants are growing well.

One of the best parts about growing pole beans is that they're hands-off plants. That said, there are a few tasks you can do to maximize plant health and productivity. The biggest is watering. I deep water the vines once or twice a week if there has been no rain. And this is especially important when the plants are in flower and pod production. Drought stress and high temperatures can prompt the vines to drop their flowers, so consistent watering is key. Pole bean pests include slugs, Japanese beetles, Mexican bean beetles, and deer. Row covers help, and I also handpick slugs and Japanese beetles to reduce their populations. You'll also want to avoid the bean patch in wet weather so you don't spread diseases like blights and white mold.

After flowering, it doesn't take long for those blossoms to turn into bean pods. Pick as soon as they reach the desired length, usually 5 to 6in. Pick them carefully to avoid damaging the plants, and aim to harvest every day or two when the plants are in high production.

Leaving over mature pods on the plants can slow the production of new flowers and pods. As you can see, a poor bean season has come to an end. But there was one last task to do: clean up.

Now I don't pull pull bean vines from the ground. Instead, I clip them off at soil level. This leaves the roots in the ground to decompose and release nitrogen back into my garden. Happy growing!

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