This true flat bush bean offers heavy yields of fleshy medium-green 5" pods that are slow to develop seeds. Pods aren’t as wide as Roma II, but walls are thicker and juicier. White seed. A small percentage will develop runners.
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About 60-100 seeds/2 oz packet. Seed sizes vary significantly by variety.
Pick frequently for maximum and steady yields, but avoid harvesting or disturbing foliage in wet conditions to prevent spread of fungal diseases. Successive plantings can be made every 2 or 3 weeks until midsummer.
The main reason many of us plant bush bean varieties is so we don’t have to construct trellises, so it can be frustrating when a bush bean starts vining. You might blame this unexpected behavior on an off-type or a seed issue. Nope. Growing conditions can trigger vining. All bush beans were bred from pole beans, and under certain circumstances their ancestral vining trait awakens. Inadequate sunlight, high-nitrogen soil or excess water can all cause a bush bean to take off like a pole-ster.
Plant beans in full (or almost full) sun; don’t go crazy with the fertility; avoid overwatering; and consider doing a soil test to make sure you have a good balance of available nutrients. And if your bush beans vine anyway, avert a tangle by snipping off runners to encourage plants to branch and bush out.
Culture: Tender, will not survive frost. Inoculate with a legume inoculant, then plant seeds 3–4" apart in rows 24–30" apart after all danger of frost has passed and soil has warmed. Minimum germination soil temperature 60°; optimal range 70–80°. White-seeded beans are generally more sensitive to cold soil temps than dark-seeded varieties. Legumes have moderate fertility needs and can fix their own nitrogen.
Saving Seed: Saving bean seed is easy! Leave pods on the plants to dry. Hand shell, or stomp pods on a tarp. To ensure true-to-type seed, separate varieties by 30 feet.
Diseases:
White mold, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, affects more than 300 plant species. In beans, low humidity, good air circulation and wider spacing, both between plants and between rows, reduce the likelihood of this soil-borne infection.
For the latest results of our germination tests, please see the germination page.
All of our seeds are non-GMO, and free of neonicotinoids and fungicides. Fedco is one of the original companies to sign the Safe Seed Pledge.
From early May through mid-December, items shipping from our garden seeds warehouse ship twice a week, usually Tuesday and Thursday. For quickest turnaround time order online by noon Monday or Wednesday.