In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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May 30, 2007

Pole beans are blooming

Bee Photograph/Florence Low

A tiny flash of pink caught my eye as I walked past the garden today. I stopped in my tracks, backed up, and peeked under the canopy of bean leaves to find clusters of flowers. It won’t be long now before I’ll be harvesting beans. In fact, the beans can be ready to harvest within two weeks of flowering.

The trick is to harvest the beans before the seeds inside ripen fully (unless you’re growing them for seed). Harvest when the pods are pencil thin, firm and crisp, before you feel fat beans inside. The pods should snap when bent. Harvest frequently, even daily, to keep the plants flowering and producing beans.

If you let the beans get too ripe, they can get tough and stringy. If you think about it from the plant’s point of view, it wants to produce ripe seeds. That is its mission. We interrupt the process by picking the beans while young and tender, so the plant responds by producing more and more flowers and beans until fall weather stops it.

Another thing to remember about pole beans is that they are shallow rooted, so be careful digging around them.

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