1 bushel of green beans from a 5' x 10' patch. Hope to do better next time.

[Ed of all trades]

My wife just picked a corner of the patch and got a bushel of green beans. I went out and measured what sh picked and it was 5' x 10'. They are not doing very well this year, I think we have a potasium shortage in the soil. Will take soil tests after we get them all picked and the garden tilled.
We plant our rows about 8" apart with a little walk behind garden way planter. Ed

 

[Birdhunter1]

You might have had to much planted in the area. 8" rows are close together.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Nope I can get a lot more planting that way than farther apart. Just think, things are not going well and my wife still picked a bushel in 50 sq ft. Ed

 

[DFB]

What do you have maybe 60 -70 ft of beans by combined rows?

Did you get at least 30-40lbs harvest?

:confused3:

 

[randy41]

there must be more beans to pick in a few days...not all the beans are ready at once. helps spread the canning/freezing process out.

 

[Ed of all trades]

You can get more beans per ft of row by planting the rows 2 ft apart but in a 50 sq ft garden how you would get 20 ft of row. How many beans would you get?
We planted a 20 x 45 ft patch and we are just pulling the plants so it is easy to pick and we will get all we can use as it is. We have also pulled the grand total of ONE weed. We tilled it and planted it the same day and the beans kept the weeds down. I like gardens that don't make me work hard. Ed

 

[oosik]

Plus, like you said, if you plant close it can shade out the weeds. By any measure, you have grown a good crop.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I am very pleased but I know my soil needs more work, We have had much better crops in the past. Have never done a soil test and the last time I put chicken litter on it was about 5 yrs ago. We try to do cover crops and add leaves to the garden most years but have never used store bought fertilizer. The cover crops and leaves are out fertilizer. Well do soil test in a few weeks and go from there. Ed

 

[oosik]

Ed, do you have a favorite brand and variety of bean to plant. We always did best with Burpees bush bean of some variety.

 

[bcjmmac]

i second planting close. We use raised beds (4' x 22') and I plant beans 4" apart (sq foot method). Good crop this year - didn't weight anything, but we were easily picking 5-10 lbs every second day during the first big crop (8' of bed so 4'x8' in total). We grow provider green beans - they will continue to flower and provide beans up until the first frost if you keep the beans off.
Main fertilizer for our garden is seaweed, applied in the fall &/or used for mulch (no chemicals used). Always apply inoculant as I use a 4 year rotation in the beds.