Beans
How to Plant Beans
We soak our beans in water for 3-6 hours before planting. It hastens germination in the garden. Beans don't like to be transplanted so plant them directly into the garden.
Varieties? This year we are trying Jade; next year we will try Jade II. Both varieties are very disease resistant/tolerant. We are using specific bean varieties because we get a lot of bean diseases in our garden. We also experiment with very short maturity varieties of all veggies so as to harvest before disease or root knot nematodes get to them.
Prep your garden bed. For a second season crop we amend the soil with composted rabbit manure and add 10-10-10 with micro-nutrients before turning it under. We realize that we will be bringing root knot nematodes to the top but have found that to perform well, we need to add the rabbit manure and fertilizer. Drip irrigation is then placed and pinned over the bed. It is always a gamble on the best way to handle the need for more fertilizer in backyard gardening.
Water. We water the bed thoroughly first. Often the day before.
Plant. We hand place each individual bean seed about 5-6" apart in a row along our drip irrigation. Using a fingertip, we push the seed 1-2" deep into the soil and cover. If you soak your beans too long, don't push the bean, make a hole and drop the bean in otherwise pushing it might destroy the seed. After all the beans are covered, we press the soil on top of the bean with our palm to ensure the seed has soil contact.
Water as needed. We run our drip every two days until the bed is saturated.
Problems with beans. If you decide to use organic controls with beans, make sure to read the label and experiment on a plant or two. Ours have been burned by even the lowest amounts of soap and water. Major problems with beans that we have found in our garden: rabbits, white fly, fungal diseases.
We soak our beans in water for 3-6 hours before planting. It hastens germination in the garden. Beans don't like to be transplanted so plant them directly into the garden.
Varieties? This year we are trying Jade; next year we will try Jade II. Both varieties are very disease resistant/tolerant. We are using specific bean varieties because we get a lot of bean diseases in our garden. We also experiment with very short maturity varieties of all veggies so as to harvest before disease or root knot nematodes get to them.
Prep your garden bed. For a second season crop we amend the soil with composted rabbit manure and add 10-10-10 with micro-nutrients before turning it under. We realize that we will be bringing root knot nematodes to the top but have found that to perform well, we need to add the rabbit manure and fertilizer. Drip irrigation is then placed and pinned over the bed. It is always a gamble on the best way to handle the need for more fertilizer in backyard gardening.
Water. We water the bed thoroughly first. Often the day before.
Plant. We hand place each individual bean seed about 5-6" apart in a row along our drip irrigation. Using a fingertip, we push the seed 1-2" deep into the soil and cover. If you soak your beans too long, don't push the bean, make a hole and drop the bean in otherwise pushing it might destroy the seed. After all the beans are covered, we press the soil on top of the bean with our palm to ensure the seed has soil contact.
Water as needed. We run our drip every two days until the bed is saturated.
Problems with beans. If you decide to use organic controls with beans, make sure to read the label and experiment on a plant or two. Ours have been burned by even the lowest amounts of soap and water. Major problems with beans that we have found in our garden: rabbits, white fly, fungal diseases.
