I normally plant Kentucky Wonder pole beans. May try Blue Lake, this year.

Still want a bush bean for an earlier crop.

Top Crop is good. That's an old stand by for many. My two favorite bush varieties are Woods Mountain Crazy Bean and Fowler.

I've always considered myself to be more of a pole bean person. But Woods Mountain produces so very well, that it's become a regular in my garden.

Another one to consider might be the NT Half Runner by Sustainable Mountain Agriculture. I'm going to try it this summer. But I've heard rave reviews. Here's a link: Sustainable Mountain Half Runners/ NT Half Runner

George

Hmm, the NT half runner does look interesting. May have to place an order.

I'm starting wonder if the short plant problem isn't more of soil related issue. The last time I planted bush beans, it was in a sandy area that I'm adding composted wood chips too, in an effort to improve soil quality.

Also wondering if an inoculant might help?

Well, to some extent it likely is a soil issue. In sandy soil, everything is grittier and needs to be triple-washed, often with a vegetable brush, to get all the grit out. I grow southern peas in sandy soil but grow my bush snap beans and bush lima beans in a raised bed filled with well-amended clay. I use mulch to keep the soil off the beans as much as possible, but then I still have bits of mulch, which usually is grass clippings from the lawn, clinging to the fine hairs on the bean pods. So, either way I end up scrubbing them before cooking or processing them.

Since most bush bean plants only get roughly 16-22" tall, the beans are always going to be fairly close to the ground, and that means they'll be grittier than pole beans harvested from taller vines. TopCrop would have been my first suggestion too since most of its beans are higher up on the plant. Harvester was developed specifically for mechanical harvesting so its beans also are somewhat higher up on the plants, and the plants themselves top out around 20" in height.

Most bush beans, when heavily laden with foliage and beans do tend to start leaning over and even sometimes falling over. There's ways around it.....staking them, for example. I plant blocks (sort of square foot garden style but not using SFG's plant spacing) instead of rows, and the blocks help because each bean, except for those on the edges of the blocks, have other bean plants on all sides to help hold them more upright. Mulching heavily with 2-4" of mulch after the plants reach a decent height also helps the plants stay upright.

One caution about half-runners. When I have grown them, most of them got quite tall--easily 5-7' tall/long and some as much as 8-10' tall. While you can grow them without support and let them meander and roam around, I prefer to grow them on a fence, trellis or tomato cages so they can climb and keep their beans off the ground. So, half-runners definitely do run and that can mean your beans are still close to if not lying on the ground. They're only "half" in comparison to a lot of the more vigorous pole bean types that can easily run 10-15' high if they have a trellis that tall to climb. The very first time I ever planted State half-runner, the plants climbed tomato cages in the next raised bed, crossing a 2' path to climb, and then they climbed about 6-7' more. I wasn't really happy that the tomato plants were sharing their cages with the half-runners, but I didn't want to yank out the beans so I let it continue. The next year, I planted a row of State half-runner with their own cages, and that worked a lot better. I generally just grow half-runners on the 8' tall garden fence, which is also how I grow pole beans and other vining crops.

Another alternative would be to lay down black plastic on the ground, cut a long slit down it to open it up where you sow the bean seeds and let the plants grow above the plastic. As long as the wind or rain doesn't carry a lot of sand onto the plastic, you ought to get fairly clean beans when you harvest. If I did that though, I'd still put some kind of mulch over the plastic to keep the ground and the bean roots from overheating.

Or, if your garden is fenced, just grow your row of bush beans along the fence so they can lean against it. That will work pretty well but it also means rabbits outside the fence can come feed on any plant part they can reach.

I have to say, I got quite a chuckle out the run away or would it be half run away beans?

It's time to rotate my cucumbers on one of my trellises, actually a double stacked section of field fence stretched between 10' tall posts. I was planning on relocating it, but I may just plant pole/runner beans there and just build another for cukes. I generally stay away from planting my garden fences, but I do have that option.

TopCrop sounds like a good choice, once I get may soil where I want it. I have piles of wood chips, numerous pine trees for pine straw, plus I mow about 3 acres. Should have enough options on mulch.

I made some inquiries through a friend about some bulk cotton seed hulls for mulch. Dropped that one really quick after I researched the defoliants they use.

Thanks to all the tips and advice. It definitely has me rethinking how I go about growing beans.

okoutdrsman,

Just curious. Do you inoculate your bush bean seed? Have you added compost to that part of your garden?

Johnny

I haven't, but both with happen before I plant. Provided my local feed store has the inoculate.

The area my pole/runner beans are going into has a good amount of compost worked in.

okoutdrsman,

I have had good luck with N-Dure inoculant. Here is one place to get it for beans.

Johnny