How to grow Beans

How to grow beans in a garden

Before planting, take a little time to plan your garden. Ensure you have adequate space -certain bean varieties require staking or a trellis, while others grow into small bushes.
Dig Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser into the soil, sow beans and water in well. Depending on the bean variety, beans should be planted around 7 to 10 cm apart and sown 25mm deep.
Apply a soluble plant food, such as Yates Thrive Vegie & Herb Liquid Plant Food when flowering starts. This is a fast acting fertiliser that’s boosted with extra potassium to encourage lots of flowers and beans.

How to grow beans in a pot

Choose a pot or trough that’s at least 50cm and choose a dwarf variety to plant (don’t choose climbing or broad beans). Try ‘Hawkesbury Wonder’ or ‘Gourmet’s Delight’.
Fill pot with a quality mix, like Yates Potting Mix with Dynamic Lifter. Sow beans and water in well.
Apply a soluble plant food, such as Yates Thrive Vegie & Herb Liquid Plant Food when flowering starts. This is a fast acting fertiliser that’s boosted with extra potassium to encourage lots of flowers and beans.

Yates varieties

Broad Beans Coles Prolific

A compact, sturdy variety that produces a heavy crop of nutty-flavoured beans. Steamed Broad Beans make an excellent addition to many hot dishes.

Dwarf Beans Borlotti

A unique variety with colourful pods and seeds. The semi-dwarf bushes produce a prolific crop that can be eaten fresh when young (like green beans) or can be left to develop mature seeds for cooking.

Dwarf Beans Bountiful Butter

An easy to grow, producing butter-yellow, tender, fleshy pods in great abundance. Stringless when young and full of flavour.

Dwarf Beans Brown Beauty

Produces a heavy crop of long, flat, fleshy pods over a long period. A hardy variety that crops well into the cooler season.

Dwarf Beans Hawksbury Wonder

A hardy variety particularly suited to early and late plantings. Produces a crop of flavoursome, high quality flat pods over a long period. Resistant to Bacterial Blight.

Dwarf Beans Stringless Pioneer

Produces a heavy crop of flat, fleshy beans of superb quality. A variety that can be planted early or late and one that is resistant to rust disease.

Growing tips

Beans come in a number of varieties, but are largely categorised into two types: dwarf or climbing. Climbing beans need room to spread, so will need to be planted out in the garden. If you don’t have the space, look for dwarf varieties – they’re perfect for large pots.
The great thing about beans is that they are part of the legume family and can capture nitrogen from the atmosphere, so when your plants are done for the season, dig them out and add to the compost heap or dig them into the garden bed.