Beans are so easy! (and much more fun than watching blight spread across my tomato plants) [View all]

I wanted to focus on just a few crops this year and learn much more about them and the best ways to grow them. I planted Maxibels (a filet bean like Provider) and they did fine. I have picked some of the plants 4 times and they just keep going. The second picking was bigger than the first and now you can just stick your hand in and pull out 4 to 6 beans at a time. From direct seed to beans in about 52 days. Didn't spray anything. Had some Japanese beetles but they didn't do much damage and are gone now.

Not many people growing them for sale here and I am told that many just don't want to do all that picking. Filet beans are selling out at $5 a pound at local farmer's markets.

I'm also growing edamame (Midori Giant), Coban and Tavera extra fine haricot vert. The deer took all of the edamame, every single plant nibbled down to stubs but the Coban and Taveras are doing great -- sturdy bush bean plants loaded with thin straight beans.

I am considering renting a machine to pick next year if I find a customer who can take 2 acres worth of green beans (about 200,000 plants). This year is just fine tuning, testing cultivars and growing enough for samples. The machine picks 50 pounds per minute.

I grew 40 different things last year (tomatoes, garbonzos, zuke, onions, potatoes, strawberries, carrots, etc) and beans were the easiest so I went forward with beans. At $5 a pound they are a much better, easier and more profitable crop than tomatoes or anything else I have found.