What Is the Fastest Growing Bean?

Varieties

• Bush beans, or snap beans, are popular because of their early maturity and expansive selection of varieties, including standard green, Italian, yellow- and purple-pod types and special hybrids.

Planting

• Sprouting the seeds indoors and then transplanting the sprouts into your garden after the last danger of frost will give you an earlier crop. The bush beans will grow rapidly, so don't overcrowd, but an advantage of the bush over the pole type is that there is no need for plant supports.

Harvesting

• The beans grow together in clusters that make harvesting them a snap. You can tell when the pods are ripe to pick when they break easily with a "snap." The seeds inside the shell should not cause pods to bulge. This usually takes 50 to 55 days from seed.

Growing Season

• For a continuous supply of beans through the fall, plant seedlings every two to three weeks through late July. For the bush type, if you pick the snap beans regularly, the plants will reproduce consistently throughout the growing season.

Added Bonus

• Not only can you get multiple harvests per growing season, snap beans, like all legumes, actually improves the quality of the soil. Their leaves absorb nitrogen from the air, and their roots put that nitrogen back into the soil, naturally fertilizing the garden for the other vegetables.