How To Grow Beans

Broad Beans - These are a cool weather crop, for the seed germinates at a low temperature. The soil in which Broad Beans are grown should be sweet, for like all legumes they prefer an alkaline, or limy soil, and one which is not too rich. The seed can be sown in autumn, so that the plants have time to become sturdy before the coldest winter weather sets in; they are then ready to burst into flower in early spring. Or they can be sown in August, when they should germinate quickly and make steady growth to maturity. Sow the seed two inches deep and six inches apart in rows two feet six inches apart.

French Beans - This name covers all types of Beans which are produced in warm weather—Butter Beans, Kidney Beans, Climbing or Runner Beans. The seed will not germinate until the soil is warm, and any which is sown too early is likely to perish. The plants are cut down by the first autumn frosts, so sowing is controlled by local climatic conditions.

In Melbourne, sowings can be made from mid-October until the end of January, but it is not worthwhile to continue past this date. In warm States sowings can be started earlier and continued later in the year.

Climbing Beans produce more sparingly than others, but one sowing of seed will be sufficient in the season, as the plants continue bearing until they are cut down by frost. On the other hand the dwarf varieties bear very profusely for a short period. It is necessary to make successional sowings every two to four weeks, during the season.

The Improved Scarlet Runner, or Seven-Year Bean is a perennial which forms thick fleshy roots from which spring new growths each year. These Beans seem to bear better in the second and following years. They are rather shy bearers in the first season. Climbing Beans are best trained on wire fences running north and south so that they get the full benefit of all available sunshine. In small gardens they can be grown in circles trained to three stakes put in tripod fashion, with their tips meeting and tied together for extra support. The White Czar Bean should be grown with the Improved Scarlet Runner, for cross-pollination purposes.

Dwarf Beans are weakly and top-heavy in growth, and very apt to be blown over. They are often sown in staggered rows: i.e., a double row of seed is sown in the one trench, alternately. As the plants develop the branches interlock, and help to hold one another up. Cultivation is always toward the plants from the centre of the space between the rows, so that after several cultivations the soil is hilled up on either side of the row, giving extra stability to the plants.

Dwarf Beans are sown in rows two feet apart, the Beans being three to six inches apart in the rows, and two inches deep in the soil. "Hilling" should commence with the first cultivation after the beans have appeared above the ground.

Beans require a medium soil. They like a good dressing of well-rotted manure (or compost and a complete market garden manure); but they intensely dislike rank, fresh manures.

Gather the crop when the pods are young, and do not let any hang till ripe; the maturing of the seeds causes these plants to stop bearing and start to die, so that if the Beans are gathered regularly the plants will produce for a longer time.