How To Grow Bush & Pole Beans In Pots For A Nutritious Harvest That Keeps Coming

What a welcoming thought! You step outside your door and reach down to a collection of greenery-filled terracotta planters on your patio. You harvest a handful of fresh green beans, which you take straight into the kitchen for dinner. Bush and pole beans are a staple of the summer garden, even when grown in pots. By following a few recommendations, such as using the right type of soil and appropriately sized containers, you can grow your own tasty legumes for a healthy crop all season long. Do it right, and those beans will just keep coming!

Aren't yet sure if you want to commit your entire backyard to food cultivation? Perhaps you just want to give the hobby a test drive. Or do you not have access to a garden but still want to create your own patio vegetable garden, balcony garden, or porch-step garden? Either way, whether you want to grow pole or bush beans, there are many varieties that thrive in pots.

'Bush Blue Lake' and 'Contender' taste great and produce abundantly. 'Cherokee Trail of Tears,' a pole bean, needs trellising. 'Derby,' 'Mascotte,' and 'Topcrop' are disease-resistant cultivars worth considering, and dwarf 'Hestia' (Phaseolus coccineus 'Hestia') is great for the smallest of sites. 'Purple Queen,' as the name implies, is one of the many colorful beans that grow well in pots. You can even grow green beans all year round with these indoor gardening tips: use grow lights, nutrient-rich soil, and the largest possible planters.

This summer crop is one of the easiest-to-grow vegetables for a container garden, but it is important to get the pots right. Choose five-gallon planters (at minimum) that are at least 12 inches deep to give your plants' roots room to spread. Fill the pots with well-draining soil — a standard potting mix is suitable for growing vegetables. Make sure the containers have drainage holes and resist the urge to put a layer of gravel, rocks, or broken terracotta at the bottom. You'll achieve the best drainage with soil filling the planter. You can use containers you already have to grow beans, but to get your crop off to a healthy start, you need to rid them of any disease-causing micro-organisms. Clean and sterilize used pots first with soapy water, then with diluted bleach.

When growing bush or pole beans in containers, wait to sow your seeds until after the last spring frost. These types of legumes aren't frost hardy. If you're growing pole beans, install a trellis or teepee into the container before or immediately after planting seedlings or sowing seeds. You'll also need to make sure the planter is large enough to support the structure's weight. Once you get the first seeds in the ground, you can plant more every couple of weeks through mid-summer for successive harvests. Position the pots in full sun for the healthiest, most nutritious beans. If you place saucers underneath your pots, empty them regularly; otherwise, you risk oversaturated soil, rotten roots, and pests.