String Beans and Lima Beans

There are many kinds of beans you can grow from soybeans to lima beans to fava beans to plain old string beans just to name a few. I have only grown lima beans and string beans up to now but I may try others in the future. This article will focus on two varieties of lima beans and two varieties of string beans I have been growing in recent years.

First off, I have found the most important thing to know when growing beans is to not over fertilize, especially when it comes to lima beans. Too much nitrogen is the main culprit. If your soil is rich in nitrogen, you will get the most spectacular bean plants you could ever imagine with hardly a bean on them. That being said, if you are just starting off and working with bad soil you may need to mix in some compost even for beans.

I usually select a bed where a heavy feeder like broccoli was grown the prior year to plant my beans. I don’t do a thing to the soil before planting my beans other than work in the leaf mulch from the prior year. My favorite string bean is the Italian Roma bush bean which is a flat bean. Here are some almost ready to pick now.

I also grow a sweeter, buttery yellow wax bean but I just planted this week but they haven’t germinated yet so I don’t have a picture.

String beans will produce a heavy crop for a couple weeks and then start slowing down and looking a little shabby. Instead of giving up on them and pulling them, cut back the ugly leaves to encourage new growth to come in and the plants should start producing again for a few more weeks.

In addition to string beans, I grow two different varieties of lima beans. My early lima beans are Fordhook bush lima beans.

To help get an early jump on these beans I start around 20 of them inside in small peat pots a week or two earlier than I would normally plant them in the garden. This ensures good germination which can be a problem with beans if the soil is cool and damp as is typical in the spring. It also gives you a two week jump on the season.

The other variety of beans I grow is King of the Garden pole lima beans. I plant these around old dilapidated fence rails I picked up. These rails work great because not only are they very long but their rough surface helps the runners on the beans grab on and wrap around. To help further I string twine down the row of poles about half way up to give the runners something additional to grab as they are just getting started.

The pole lima beans fill out, grow very high and become very heavy by the end of the growing season so whatever you decide to use make sure it’s sturdy. I will follow up with the beans to show what they look like fully grown and let you see how much shelling I have to do around August.

Thanks for reading. Share any bean stories you may have. If you enjoyed this post please upvote and resteem.