How to Grow Beans at Home : Everything You Need to Know

Growing beans at your home is one of the easiest, and surprisingly a rewarding processes. So if you are a season gardener or someone who just started, and needs something to start with, then I think beans would be a perfect crop to start.

So, how to grow beans at home, well its a very simple and easy process, all you need is a suitable place, proper soil and a little bit care, and in couple of weeks you will have your own harvested beans, and trust me its one of the best feeling.

Below, we explain everything you need to know about how to plant beans at home, from selecting seeds and varieties to harvesting and saving seeds for the future.

How to Grow Beans at Home:

The process growing red beans at home is same as growing beans in the garden, but in home you will face some complications. Some of the complications or issues that you will face, include not having enough space, not being able to get proper sunlight, and other possible issues that you might never seen or heard before.

Well don’t worry and solves these issues one by one.

• First, you need to find a good place in your home garden where it gets proper sunlight and air circulation.
• If you can’t have a garden in your home then you can consider planting your beans in pots or containers but for container farming, you need to make sure they get proper sunlight and enough space to grow (especially for pole beans because they can grow about 6 to 8 feet tall which also need support).
• If you have small space then consider planting in containers, and instead of pole beans you should choose bush beans because they don’t grow that tall, which is what you need.
• For watering your plants, instead of deep irrigation, just water them by hand but according to its limit.

There might be other issues that you may face, if you don’t know how to handle it then don’t worry and contact me at agmin@gardencrafting.com and I solve your issues right away. Till then follow the process of growing red beans at home garden.

Types of Beans you Can Grow at Home:

There are basically two types of beans you can choose from. One is pole beans and another is bush beans.

Poles Beans:

Pole beans are vining plants which need a trellis or some sort of support that helps them grow vertically. For pole beans, you would need 6-8 feet tall support because they can grow that tall. The pole beans grow more beans than bush means but it takes time to do so. So if you have a small garden and want to grow more beans then you should consider it.

Bush Beans:

Well, bush beans have bush plants instead of vines, which luckily don’t need any support. As compared to pole beans they grow faster and have a limited harvest.

There are also other types of varieties that you can choose from like Scarlet runner beans, Kidney beans, Pinto beans, Adzuki beans, and small red beans etc.

Preparation for Growing Beans:

The preparation of planting bean in your home garden is divided into couple of few steps.

Choosing Location:

After selecting the bean types and variety, now it’s time to choose a location for planting beans. Let me tell you my process of choosing and selecting a place and location in my home garden. I choose a Place where beans will get about 6 to 8 hours of sunlight especially in the morning and in even. It should be sheltered from extreme sunlight during mid-day.

Another thing that you might not consider important but it is in my checklist list which is a place beans in a spot where it protected from strong winds because it can damage the plant.

Soil Preparation:

After selecting a place for planting, the next step is preparing the soil. For soil, you need to get and use loamy soil for better results. You can also use clay, but avoid using sandy soil. You should also add compost or well rotten mature into the soil to increase organic matter. Also, ensure the soil has pH levels 6 to 7 with good drainage because beans don’t like waterlogging.

Planting Beans:

So once the soil is prepared, it’s time to start planting the beans.

When to Plant Beans:

Whenever you start planting your beans make sure to plant them after the frost because they don’t like cold temperatures and due to low temperatures, the seeds rot instead of germinating. The ideal temperature for planting beans is 60 to 85F (15 to 30 C). Usually beans like to warm temperature which is why you should check the temperature of your area before planting. You can start planting beans form March to April.

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How to Plant Beans:

For planting beans in your home garden you need to planting them about 1 inch deep and 3 to 5 inches apart from the next bean. You can also do it by making a small row of 1 inch deep and start putting your bean seeds one by one with appropriate space. The next row should be 20 to 25 inches apart from the previous one.

For bush beans, you can also follow that same method of planting.

Planting in Container:

While planting beans in your home, one can also plant them in a pot or a container. For beans, you should choose a container that is at least 12 inches deep and 24 inches wide. For pole beans you should get a container that is 20 to 24 inches deep and wide enough to give space to multiple plants. For plant beans in a container, the depth is the same which is 1 inch deep and 2 to 5 inches apart from one another.

From Seeds or Seedling:

A lot of new gardeners get confused between start growing their own seeds or getting seedlings and transplanting them later. Will let me give you some expert advice, beans usually don’t like transplanted from one place to another because their roots can be damaged very easily and that is why most seedlings don’t make it. This is why I always advise new gardeners to start by growing their seeds instead of getting seedlings and planning to transplant.

But if you live in a cool climate and are familiar with the dos and don’ts of beans farming, the go ahead and get seedlings but transplant them before the last frost.

Caring for Beans Plants:

Once you have planted beans at your home gardener and successfully germinated, it’s time to take care of those plants. The first step of caring for bean plants is,

Watering:

At the beginning stages like planting and germination beans just need moisture. During the flowering stage and pod development stages, it needs 1 inch of water about 1 to 2 times a week, depending upon your climate. While watering beans make sure to just moisturise the soil and prevent adding too much water that cause waterlogging, also avoid watering overhead bean plants because it can cause fungal diseases that spread really quickly.

Providing Support for Beans:

If you planted pole beans then you need to provide support for bean plants in the shape of, a stick, bamboo, or trellis. You should provide these support sticks as soon as they sprout because they start growing as soon as produce leaves. The trellis should be installed in front of the seed and deep enough that when the plant spirals around it then it supports its weight.

Fertilizing:

You also need to provide fertilize to your home-grown beans. At first, you should add organic fertilizer which I personally use and recommend it to you, but if you don’t have that, then you can also add inorganic fertilizer. You can add about 5 pounds of 5-10-15 fertilizer on 100 feet of rows. You can also use 5-10-10 or 10-10-10, depending upon your soil types.

Harvesting:

So after about 60 to 80 days, your beans will be ready to harvest, depending upon your beans variety. You can tell the beans are ready when the pods are mature and dried, and if you open one you will see fully colored beans.

For harvesting just start to cut and collect the pods from each plant. During the harvesting you might notice green pods, so leave them for a week or so and come back for then after some time when they will be ready.

Post Harvesting:

You can store your beans in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks or you can start blanching and then freeze them. You can also dry the bean then it can be stored and used for longer periods.

Saving seeds for Next season:

If you want to save some seeds for planting next year in your home garden then make sure to leave some pods of beans in the plant and let them dry. Once they are dried then you should collect them and store them for future use.

Here is a video for demonstrating the whole process and its time-lapse of growing beans at home harden.

Common Problems in Growing Beans:

While growing beans at home, you will face a lot of problems, as given below.

Pests:

Many insects will cause problems for your homegrown beans, including cutworms, aphids, spider mites, and bean leaf beetles, are common.

• Cutworms damage the young baby bean plants. You should remove the cutworm by hand but its high quantity then use any good pesticides.
• Aphids are one of the common plant enemy, it responsible for sticky leaves, curly leaves, and discolouration of leaves and stem in bean plants. You can use a good insecticide as treatment for aphids.
• Spider mites also feed on leaves on bean leaves, which affects the plant badly. You can remove them with a strong jet water spray or use any good pesticide spray.
• Bean leaf beetles not only feed on leaves but also feed on pods too. As a treatment, you should any good insecticide.

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Diseases:

There are many beans diseases that can damage your plants very badly.

• Alternaria leaf spot is one of the common bean diseases in which you see dark lesions on the leaves. For solution use any good fungicide spray.
• Anthracnose is also a common bean disease that is caused by fungus in which the whole plant gets covered by dark lesions including pods and stem. As a treatment, you should avoid watering overhead and use certified disease free seeds.
• Bean rust is also caused by fungus which starts affecting the plant by creating yellow and white spots on its leaves, stems and pods. For treatment, you can use any good fungicide spray, but before that remove any of the plants that are affected.

For more bean diseases you can check out our detailed guide which has listed some of the most common beans diseases with pictures.

Conclusion:

Growing beans at home is a very simple but rewarding experiment. You can grow beans at home if you don’t have enough space, and you can do that with the help of a container. The process is easy just follow the above explained process and you will have yourself some fresh homegrown beans.

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