staple
Dry bean
Protein that sits on a shelf. Bush for speed, pole for yield per square foot.
Combined with corn, beans make a complete protein. They dry themselves.
- When to sow
- Soil 60°F, mid-May. Don’t soak seed in cold ground — it rots.
- Spacing
- Bush 4 in, rows 18–24 in. Pole 8 in at the base of a sturdy trellis.
- Days
- 85–100 (Pinto, Black Turtle, navy, rattlesnake pole)
- Harvest
- Pods tan and rattly. Pull whole plants on a dry day and hang. Shell when brittle.
- Store
- Bone-dry in jars. Freeze 48 hours first to kill weevil eggs. 25+ years if dry and dark.
- Save seed
- Easiest crop to save. Keep 50+ plants of one variety away from other blooming beans if you want it true.
- Companions
- Corn, savory, potato. Not with onions.
- Pests
- Mexican bean beetle — crush yellow egg clusters, hand-pick copper adults. Don’t plant beans in the same bed two years running.
- A 4×12 bed of bush beans can fill a gallon jar. Plant a second succession in early July for a fall dry crop.