Time to plant a second crop of beans

Green beans have always been one of the most loved of all garden-fresh vegetables. Out-of-season and shipped in from afar, the quality never quite measures up. To keep them coming fresh until fall, it’s time to plant again.

Seed catalogs usually put green beans under the heading of snap beans, but for a very long time they were known only as string beans and are still called that even though the string — the fiber along the top of each long pod — has been bred out through hybridization. If you plant heirloom beans, you may want to remove any strings you find before cooking.

Whether they grow on low bushes or on long vines trained on poles or other supports, the beans are basically the same. The first sowings can be done as soon as soil warms in spring, and July is as long as we can wait for a last sowing.

Seeds marked for sowing this year should germinate quickly but older seeds benefit from a brief soaking. Soaking too long will cause them to rot and if they sprout before planting, growth is delayed if it happens at all.

It isn’t uncommon to hear gardeners complain that they never have any luck growing beans and they’ve given up. These tales usually stem from early spring plantings made when the soil is too cool and too wet. If you’ve never had success, you might reconsider and plant now when there is plenty of warmth.

Beans want constant moisture, neither dry nor soggy soil, for sprouting and for subsequent growth. Compost worked into the planting row before sowing and spread as side dressing as bushes grow helps produce a healthy crop.

Bush beans take fewer days than pole beans to reach maturity and are the only type that you can rely on when planting in July.

Blue Lake, a favorite everywhere for excellent flavor and texture, produces slim, 6-inch pods that mature in eight weeks. Bountiful is a slightly longer stringless heirloom. Its bushes grow a little taller than Blue Lake’s and produce heavily, about seven weeks after sowing.

You can find both of these varieties in packets of 150 beans for only $1.99 at www.heirloomseeds.com or in smaller packets at www.reimerseeds.com for $2.50.

Reimer’s also sells Burpee Bush Beans, an heirloom that, when introduced in 1894, was claimed to be the only stringless bean of its type. It still pleases lovers of garden-fresh produce and is also suitable for canning and freezing. Plants are fairly tall for bush beans, nearly 2 feet; they produce 50 days after planting.

An even older heirloom, Black Valentine — a best seller available from both seed houses — has been described as one of the all-time outstanding varieties. Days to harvest run longer than most bush beans — 70 days — but in very warm microclimates it could still be planted in mid-July.

Black Valentine bears heavy crops of rounded, dark green pods that are crisp, flavorful and suitable for freezing. Because harvest extends over many weeks, a July planting could last until Thanksgiving, that is, if frosts are delayed. If left to mature and dry on the vine, this variety becomes tasty shell beans — black — that can be used in soups or stews.

If you’re looking for organic seeds, you can find them from Petaluman David Baldwin at www.naturalgardening.com or 766-9303.

One of the finest is Nickel Haricots Verts, which he describes as “a variety from the highly regarded French seed house of Vilmorin. Thin, straight, stringless and flavorful, Nickel produces long holding beans in concentrated harvests, allowing you to take more from each plant, and to do so less frequently than most other bean varieties and still get good quality beans. Easy to grow, these beans command a premium price in the market — if you can find them.”

Packets of Baldwin’s Haricots Verts are small, with only 45-55 seeds per $1.99 packet, but he also sells a 4-ounce packet for $5.75.

He also sells another French bean, the filet heirloom Fin de Bagnol. To enjoy filet types in their prime, most need picking every day or two or they will lose their excellent flavor. Beans mature seven to eight weeks after seeding.

Both Fin de Bagnol and a modern hybrid, Provider, do well in cool areas and would be suitable for microclimates near the coast. Provider grows fairly compactly and comes into production after 50 days.

Because stems on bush beans can be quite brittle, beans should be harvested with care. Some gardeners prefer cutting pods at the point where the stem connects to the vine rather than pulling them off. One reason for cutting is to save time snipping off ends before cooking.

However you choose to harvest, pick while pods are still slim and before beans become visible. One of the benefits, after all, of homegrown beans is to enjoy them crisp and tender rather than tough and flavorless.