Bush Beans
Dates below are counted from the average last spring frost or the average first fall frost. Enter a ZIP in the calendar for NOAA 1991–2020 station averages, or pick a zone and use the zone table.
When to plant
Soil and site
Average soil — beans fix their own nitrogen, so skip heavy fertilizer.
Seedlings
Direct sow in warm soil only; seed rots in cold, wet ground.
In the garden
Succession sow every 3 weeks for a continuous picking. Stay out of the bean patch when leaves are wet — it spreads rust.
Picking
Pick every day or two at pencil thickness. Constant picking is what keeps them producing.
Harvest
First harvest is about 50–60 days after sowing or planting outdoors. The picking window often runs about 3 weeks.
Pick at pencil thickness every day or two. Pods left to swell will slow the next flush.
Preserving
Plain snap beans have no safe boiling-water canning process.
USDA's tested method for green and wax snap beans is pressure canning only. The guide states there is no boiling-water option. Use the linked tables.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Beans, snap and Italian →Freeze snap beans after blanching, using the NCHFP freezing method.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Freezing beans, green, snap, or wax →Dilled beans are a tested pickle, not a way to can plain beans. Follow that recipe as written.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Dilled beans →Dry snapped beans with the NCHFP drying guide, then condition them before storage.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Drying fruits and vegetables →A home freeze-dryer can dry this crop, but USDA has not published a canning-style time for it. Follow the appliance manual for load and cycle length, then store the dry food sealed. Freeze-drying is not a substitute for a tested canning process.
Appliance manual (no USDA process time)
Canning, pickling, and fermenting notes here are summaries of tested USDA and National Center for Home Food Preservation methods. Times, pressures, and amounts live only on those pages. This site does not publish home-invented processing times.
Gear placeholders
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- Placeholder: seeds for Bush Beans
- Placeholder: canning gear
- Placeholder: home freeze dryer
Dates by zone
These pages turn the same frost offsets into calendar dates for each zone the calendar covers.