I planted purple pole beans some time in the first week of September, with my fingers crossed. Last year I planted bush Contender beans in early October, and got a nice little crop from them. My first ever bean success here! I'm going to plant those again as a bush bean, hopefully in the next week or so.

You will find that you can get a fall crop here by planting the first part of October or even a little sooner. However the crop will not be nearly as large as the spring crop. By the way I agree with the other writer, Contender has always been the best of the beans that I have grown here and it is of course a bush type bean. If you are concenred about beating the sun, you are quite safe to plant your seeds the third week of February. By the time they sprout above the soil the threat of frost will be gone and you will get a very nice crop.

I'll see if I have any Conteder beans and plan them tonight.
Next spring, I'll have to shoot for Feb instead of March. The Rattlesnakes almost made it, flowers but no beans.

My Rattlesnakes were a bust too. I've planted dragon tongue bush beans first of September in the past and got a good crop and I've seen fava beans in the county extension demo garden in Oct. sot they take our fall and winters.

I planted butter beans in July. Just for fun, one of the seeds was planted in a pot at the base of a palo blanco tree. Sorry the picture is out of focus. I have to keep wrapping the vine around the little support so it doesn't climb up out of reach. Then besides that I have a few plants at the north and at the south, just to see how they do. So far everything looks pretty good except the south-facing plants are heavily shaded by big okra plants. They aren't nearly as happy as the others.

Wish I had thought of sowing scarlet runner beans. Just for kicks I stuck a few in a pot yesterday to see what happens. The planting calendar I am using is the one from the Urban Farm. It suggests planting snap beans in March and August.

Here is a link that might be useful: Low Desert Planting & Harvest Calendar

Thanks for the reminder on the beans. I sowed 3 types of bush beans in early summer - twice - and got zero germination. Looks like my timing was seriously off so I'll try some now, I have dragon tongue (from sundrop!!) that failed to sprout last time. Do you folks soak the beans overnight first?

To soak or not to soak beans before planting? Anyone?

Mary, I've never soaked mine, and had no problems with germination.

Thank you!!

I think soaking just kind of gives you a jump start and eliminates some of the time you need to keep the soil damp to get that germination. In wetter areas, it's not as big of a deal because the ground stays cooler and moister.