The vegetable soybean (not the field soybean) can be used like green peas or lima beans or can be dried and used like navy beans or can be sprouted like Mung beans. Soybeans are the lowest-starch, highest-protein bean. The soybean is a sprawling bush legume much like a bush snap bean or lima bean. Plants…
Legumes
Pea Picking Tips
The best tasting peas are young, sweet, and tender. The best way to tell when peas are ready is to pick and taste each day until they are just right. Then harvest. Peas should be just about ready for harvest 3 weeks after the flowers appear. Shelling peas are ready when the pods have swelled…
Bush Snap Beans for Quick Harvest
Bush snap beans are mild flavored and from seed are ready for harvest in as few as 40 days. Plant bush beans every 10 days or so for a continuous harvest throughout the season, or plant bush beans early in the season for a harvest before pole beans are ready or late in the season…
Bean Growing Tips
Snap beans are eaten as a green pod. Pole beans climb, but can also be snap beans. Shelly beans are beans that have begun to mature–the green maturing seeds are harvested young and cooked like fresh peas. Dry beans have matured and dried in the pod and are soaked before cooking. Wax beans are any…
How to Grow Lentils
Lentils are a cool-season legume. Sow lentils in spring as early as 2 weeks before the average last frost date. Lentils can be started indoors before transplanting to the garden; lentil seeds will germinate in 10 days at 68°F. Lentils require 80 to 110 days to come to harvest. Description. Lentils are a hardy annual;…
How to Grow Soybeans
Soybeans are tender warm-weather legumes. Sow soybeans in spring 2 to 3 weeks after the average last frost date when the soil has warmed to at least 60°F (16°C). Soybeans can be planted earlier in warm-winter regions. Soybeans grow best where the daytime temperature averages in the 70°sF (21°C). Description. The soybean is a bushy,…
Bean Growing Problems: Troubleshooting
Beans: garden beans–including pole, bush, and shell–lima beans, mung beans, scarlet runner beans, asparagus beans, and southern peas (which are not beans but share similar cultural requirements). All of these crops share similar problems. Here is a list of common bean problems and possible causes and cures. For more on vegetable garden pests and diseases…
Bean Varieties: Best Bets and Easy-to-Grow
Need top-choice, sure-bet, best-pick, easy-to-grow bean varieties? Here are 25 top-performers for the home garden divided into 5 popular bean types: (1) snap-bush green, (2) snap-pole green, (3) bush yellow, (4) lima, and (5) dried and shell beans. Keep reading to the bottom of this post for my tips for sure-fired bean growing success. Also…
How to Grow Chickpeas, Garbanzo Beans
The chickpea or garbanzo bean is a cool-season annual that requires about 100 days to reach harvest. Sow chickpeas in the garden about the date of the average last frost in spring or slightly earlier. Chickpeas require a long growing season; to get a head start on the season, sow chickpeas indoors in a peat…
How to Grow Peanuts
The peanut is a warm-weather perennial vegetable that requires 120 to 130 frost-free days to reach harvest. Sow peanuts in the garden 3 to 4 weeks after the average last frost date in spring, when the soil has warmed to at least 65°F (18°C). To get a head start on the season start peanuts indoors…
