Are Bush Beans Worth Growing? 

I grow inoculated bush beans or peas in every spot that opens up in my garden, even just a square foot. The main reason is for the nitrogen that they put into the soil for the next crop. I also harvest a small amount of green pods to eat but leave the majority to become dry beans to eat or plant later. Don't replant hybrids. Think of bush beans as a supporting plant with benefits instead of a crop and you will fall in love with them!

I usually grow a bed or two of bush black/turtle beans, specifically for drying and winter consumption. I find that in my climate, I can grow two full crops in one season. Labor is reduced since I pull and dry the whole plants as they begin to die off, then thresh them to extract the dry beans.

I much prefer a climbing variety for many reasons, primarily because they look beautiful on a trellis and because I don't have to bend over very much to pick them. Thanks for doing the hard work of the research to reinforce what I suspected, climbing beans are for me.

A video on how you make your planting plans would be super valuable

I've been growing bush beans for a few years now - and in my raised garden setup - they perform outstanding. I typically get 3-4 good flushes before they get too leggy/damaged, at which point I chop em, top dress with compost - and replant for a fall crop. Last year, we had so many beans from one bed - we were regularly eating frozen blanched beans right up to this years first harvest. In contrast to my pole beans, the bush beans did not get stripped by japanese beetles.

I grew two whole packets of bush beans for drying this season; Goodness, was that ever a waste of time and space. The plants produced just fine, but spending the same amount of money on dried store beans would have resulted in about six times as many as I ended up harvesting without any of the wasted water, bed space, time, effort, shelling, etc. Fun experiment that taught me to use that bed for much more desirable and difficult to acquire crops (I'm looking at you, Petite Gris de Rennes), especially in my small garden. Thanks for another great video.

As i stated on your last video.. dry beans are a good staple during the winter.. so growing some along side your green beans makes sense.. that way you have access to good protein during winter ..

this is interesting because ive actually thought about this myself. currently in my context bush beans are the most reliable plant in my garden. i know that if i plant them they will grow but they take up so much space for such little produce dispite the labor involved in harvesting them. ive never had luck with climbing beans but this is likely due to a combination of factors i could easily mitigate. right now i still have a ton of bush beans i can plant though so its hard not to grow them but perhaps i should focus on creating a space for climbing beans in the future

I so appreciate your analysis and humility. Recognizing error bias in the results makes them more valid, imo. My suburban yard offers mostly narrow beds against the fence. Given the shapes of my growing areas, pole beans are on the shopping list for spring. I intend to intercrop with june-bearing strawberries, putting in the beans when garlic comes out in june.

Great video, thanks. We also planted bush beans for the first time quite late this year (outside) and I was amazed about their continuos production and it was great to use them as an after crop. We were also surprised about how good they tasted, much more tender than the runner beans as you mentioned. We are definitely going to plant the again next year. :-)

I tend to favor the pole beans, saves space in my garden, but also blocks the sun a bit, but is sometimes helpful for certain plants. The bush beans seem to take more room, flop over and are aggravating to pick. I like the idea mentioned in the comments about planting under tomatoes, uses the available space and would act like a living mulch blocking the sun.

I've used bush beans in inter crop gardens when I take something big out, like a large cabbage and I want something to take it's place that will produce quickly in the remaining months of my Colorado grow year. It's worked only ok for me, so I only plant them when the bush bean stars align, not as a primary crop.

I grow hildora (yellow pods) outdoors. and I am super happy with them. First havest in June, last one in late October.

Doing science with the view of a deeper understanding is amazing.

I am in Zone 6b this will be the 3rd year. Taking each last harvest and letting it dry out to keep seeds for next planting. I found that The tricolored bush beans work amazing for me. I plant about 6 and get so much that I have to tell my neighbors they can help themselves but harvest only early am or evening. These beans have gone through early the middle of December. My favorite type of beans and it's very low maintenance.

I absolutely love your videos!

Hi Bruce I grew bush beans for the first time this year, mainly because I saw your bush bean trial video. I really liked growing them and they produced well when the climbing beans didn't set flowers. I will be growing bush and climbing beans next year. Thanks for the great videos.😁👍🎃

For me, I just simply don’t have the infrastructure to grow many climbing plants (and I have other climbing crops that take priority) so bush beans that can be stuck in any bed are more valuable for me. I’m only growing for my family so I don’t mind if I get lower yields.

I understand better I moved to Ireland and did not know that the climate doesn't grow climbing beans as easily outdoors. Thank you. Birdy

Your bush beans seem so productive compared to mine. I like your use of the fencing.

I plant both types, and have come to prefer the shorter season bush bean. The most outstanding bush var I have found is a wax bean called goldenrod, very prolific and great flavor, I will be doubling up on them next year.

I grow a lot of bush beans in the main outdoor garden, mostly because of the space we have but I'm always reminding others to think about using the vertical space too. We mostly grow for the dried beans, bring the cut bushes in, and dry them upstairs in the loft (hung out of the way of any mice), fully deshelling them sometime over winter. I do however pick one or 2 varieties just for picking as green beans and usually do purple teepee, and this year one called Finezija (just 60cents a pack) which I think just translates as fine bean, it was an incredible cropper of lovely tender fine green beans. We also pick a few borlotto beans when the pods are flat as they trim and cut just like runner beans. I am now wondering if perhaps If I go through the effort of erecting canes for one bed of climbing beans it might produce the same as 2 beds of bush beans.

I grew 2 varieties and they produced ALL summer non stop. So many beans I stopped picking them and now i have some shelling beans. Favorite varieties are royal burgundy bush and provider. They produce more then my pole beans. I would say depending on your space and variety they can be. Another great video! They don't take up much space and produce a lot of food. I froze like 10 quarts from a single row.

good info

I grow snow peas best now in the autumn garden, again in early spring. Beans I don't have room for in my pico/micro square foot garden, need a new larger green house also. I've watched most of your videos over these past few years; and I don't recall your growing Zea mays before. AAC

I grew bush beans for the first time last year, and for some reason I thought when the description said "compact," they wouldn't take up much space. They ended up getting so huge, they killed off the lettuce nearby because they completely blocked the light. And the harvest wasn't gigantic for the amount of space they take up, as you point out here. I did end up freezing the beans and appreciated having them for soups and stews this fall and winter. But this coming season I'm definitely going to plant more pole beans and just stick bush beans in where I have empty space.

I grow the bush beans for the market mostly because the customers love them so much. They are considered high labor low profit in the vegetable grow options here. On bush beans, you need to do a succession crop every 30 days, so you're picking off good harvest amounts per row, peak harvest being around 10lbs per 50ft row. I space 24 inches between rows, and they tend to support each other fairly well at that spacing. They need to be picked every 2 days, no more than 3. Honestly, the only thing that stops bush beans from being the perfect crop is the harvest labor. They are easy to plant, grow faster than weeds, store well, and sell very well at market. I let the second of 4 succession crops go after production drops and I'm harvesting elsewhere and they will produce enough seed pods to give me the seed I need for next years crop, so cost savings and possibly nitrogen fixing is a nice bonus you get from Bush beans.

thanks

My context is very different from yours, I just grow for us, and as I don't particularly like climbing beans, apart from one variety, I only grow bush beans and am very happy with the result.

I've recently noticed that the veteran gardeners at my allotment complex have been growing bush beans as an end-of-season catch crop, as you mentioned in the video. They plant the small plants in between finishing vegetables. Once those vegetables are done, the beans just take off. They produce beans well into October. They will be finished off by the first frost, but currently temps are warm and beans are happy.

Recently saw a vid by a bush bean grower who does some initial harvesting on the bush beans in the field, but eventually cuts the entire bush, takes them into the shade where there is a table, chair and fan and mass harvests the cut bushes. Yes. This bending over crap must stop! It seems that if you staggered planting of your bush beans, you would have a fairly continuous crop using the mass harvest method until the climbing beans kicked into production.

I Love Growing Bush Beans in my Garden ❤️❤️❤️

Addendum: I grow several new (to me) plant varieties each year. I tried a variety of garbanzo beans or chick peas. The foliage looks more like vetch. Yet with only 2 peas per pod, I'd have to have acreage which I don't have to grow enough to eat, much less share. AAC

I agree on your observations. I much prefer climbing beans. Much higher yields per sq. meter much easier and faster to harvest and I love that they are not dirty and need washing before cooking like bushbeans. They do cast some shadow but I just place them where it's suitable. Yes, the only downside is that it takes time and materials to build the stucture, but they just look so nice and lush. Note that I am in Denmark and as far as I can see our summers are slightly warmer than where you're at, so they are easier to grow here

My spring planted bush beans in my raised bed did rubbish, and had big pest problems, maybe grew badly due to potatoes next to them, but the July planted ones in the field did well ... But only because we had a mild September. They would still be producing if we hadn't had exactly ONE night of frost last week (otherwise it's been back to 16-18C in the day and 7-12 overnight). I didn't measure yield but if I got 1 kg total I'd be lucky. Probably about a square metre total. The raised bed beans made an autumn comeback, as I'd pruned them down but not removed them due to having then interplanted.

Thank you for this well made video. While you focus on produce, you might also consider the effect of nitrogen fixing beans have on your soil.

In a home garden context, bush beans are good for under/inter planting, very easy to grow, and valuable for the soil.

excellent, I suspected the data would be as such...

I love fresh beans - i just cant find a variety that freezes well. I'm amazed you can't grow them outside .. they can handle a bit of cool weather once they've got going. They do need support though. Interesting video 😊

Excellent information. Down with bush beans! Maybe bush beans are better for large farms

You're in ireland no? I'm in the UK and can't find a stockist for Emerite. Doesn't seem to be a variety available outside the USA. Didnl you import your beans?

I no longer grow climbing beans as they do not produce well outside for me. I also don't like their tough texture or taste. Bush beans outside for me is one of my favorite things to grow and very productive. Might be my shorter colder climate.

Could you tell more about the bend fence you used to how up the plants. I'm interested in it as something I might be able to use in my own garden. What size fencing did you use?

You can tie them up also.

I was wondering if I put bush beans into my food Forrest do you think they would be come wild so I would get some every year

By "Bush beans" I assume you mean what my seed suppliers call "Dwarf beans". I grew 2 varietys this year, "Hilton" and a yellow variety I forget the name of. Hilton was more productive overall but the yellow ones came good later on. I grow mine outside separately in 12" pot's because I find that growing them in the soil makes the pods lie on the floor and they get attacked on the ends. This year they were kept in the shade by my climbing beans in the same way that yours were in the shade from your corn plants. It didn't seem to bother them.

Hi, interesting video. I grow Cupidon, very good variety, excellent taste and you can pick them big (stringless). They're not advised for tunnel growing according to the creator (Gautier semence). In France we usually earth up bush beans . Bush beans allow me to make a lot of money at the farmer's market more so than other higher yielding crops because they're so popular and you can only sell so many cucumbers or aubergines. Check out this other variety if you can find it : Pongo. Great for growing in high tunnels, the plants stay upright and they produce thinner beans which people tend to prefer. I will check out the Marona variety which I had never heard about. I might try it next year. Also climbing beans may produce more but over a longer period and they involve a lot of work seting the strings and removing them at the end also. All in all bush beans are a better option than climbing beans imo.

Bush beans are great for outdoors in an unkept area because they don't need tying up and they shade out most of the weeds once established. I'd never waste my tunnel space on them though! They are a low maintenance and low yield crop. Climbing beans work on the tunnel because you get so much more out of them and they require a lot of maintenance and picking so the tunnel makes sense. Just do your bush beans outdoors imo. I do them under fleece for May/June if the nights are cool, but still just outdoors in a long row. No staking as the winds make them pretty sturdy. Don't feel like they were ever a good option for indoor growing imho. Total waste of space that could be amazing tomatoes for passata ;)

The purple beans that you harvested full grown but still fresh, why did you do that? Do you dry those and use as a bean dish like you would pintos? Or do you you eat them fresh that way? Just hoping to learn the use of them 😊

I've used bush beans under my tomatoes. I prune my tomatoes to keep the foliage far from the ground, so there's a lot of space there. I've also planted climbing beans under my tomatoes, and wouldn't recommend it. They quickly overtook my tomatoes and caused airflow related disease.

You should do a protein-based chart. Where you factor in the nutritional value of the crops vs. the space you use. I was not able to get through the video, and had to stop, but wanted to ask if this was possible.

I'm trying to find the type used in fried green beans that seem to be about as long as NG as a dinner plate. What name should I be looking for.

I’m in Ireland and grow dwarf French beans ( as they are known here) in my polytunnel or in large pots. Buying them even in summertime here is depressing because they come thousands of miles from Kenya or Peru. They must be days old.

Will there be a moment where you make your "final conclusion" on, for example which garden style is best and which crops - and consequently change everything into said conclusion?

Question: when you use urine as a fertilizer how much do you dilute it before applying, and how often do you apply it? Thanks.

Hey I started growing bush beans and at first they started out a normal green color but then two of them are turning a really light green that I don’t think is normal. What’s wrong and what should I do?

Would love to see a "bean off" video, french vs runner vs broad. From your data, do you have any idea which would win?

Dwarf or Bush beans under tomatoes works well here.

BEnt wire geid.is.genius ...im assuming.something like concrete panel

Bush beans are inferior to pole/climbing beans grew some last year as I had seeds and compared to pole they were underwhelming..

"and instead of taking the sensible approach" That's my gardening in a nutshell

Mmmmm but dwarf french (bush) beans taste better, my subjective view perhaps, climbers and the stringy runners that I've ever grown never made my yum test. As Bob Flowerdew once said, why grow radishes if you prefer strawberries.

Bush beans and pole beans taste very different.

I absolutely hate picking bush beans. There were developed for mechanical harvest, which makes sense for commercial purposes, but bending over rooting through the mass of leaves trying to find the beans is just miserable. I only grow pole beans these days, so much nicer to harvest and they produce much longer of course.

Bush beans can make great companion crops because they put nitrogen into the soil.

I prefer bush. The harvest is much greater than the climbing variety.

:)

I don't understand why people are so fond of climbers. It looks like a pain in the ass to me. I plant Blue Lake 274. They stand on their own. A single 100 foot row gives me all I want to eat and freeze, so long as I keep them picked. The predatory insects really seem to love the blooms. By the hottest part of Florida summer they decline and heat prevents pollination, so they come out.

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Tried them this year for the first time and in my opinion they're terrible. The texture and bite is totally different than a pole bean. I'm yanking them all out tomorrow. What a disappointment.

first off youtube is a total piece of garbo with it's comments... someone needs to fix this. as I've been meaning to say regarding this; I notice little difference in my climate as I primarily grow beans for dry beans as opposed to snaps and only really get 1 flush... pole beans are more of a pain to manage, bush beans mold more. that's my 10 cents.

Ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa 😂😂😂

I want to show you my bush beans and ask few things about its condition....where can i contact you?I only planted 4 so yeah 😅and 4 okra too...and i grew it in a bucket