Green-Bean Picking Time

Time of Year

• Green beans flower in mid-summer. Soon after the flower wilts, a pod begins to develop. By late summer the pod will be ready to harvest. With continual picking, the plant will continue to produce green beans into fall.

Pod Size

• Leave the beans on the plant until they are about the width and length of a pencil. Picked early, the pod won't have much flavor. If picked too late, the pod will have a fibrous texture. Harvest the green beans every couple days to keep the plant productive. Once a pod develops beans, the plant will stop flowering and stop producing new pods.

Bush Beans vs. Pole Beans

• Bush beans grow only 2 feet high and are suitable for small spaces, but they tend to flower all at once, and the pods all develop at the same time. For a longer harvest of green beans, time your planting; plant a few bush beans every couple weeks throughout late spring and early summer so they they will mature at different times.

  Pole beans grow up to 8 feet tall. Their flowers appear throughout the summer, and pod production is staggered. Pole beans only need to be planted once in late spring to produce a steady harvest of beans in late summer.

How to Pick

• To avoid spreading disease, only harvest your green beans when the plant is dry. Water after harvesting, not before. Pick the beans as early in the day as possible. To avoid breaking the vine, don't pull the bean from the plant; instead, cut the pod from the vine with clean garden scissors.