DIY Network

Controlling Weeds and Pests Controlling Weeds and Pests From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-111

As with growing any vegetable, it's important to keep weeds and pests from thwarting your beans' progress. Here, learn easy tips on keeping both of these problems at bay:

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	Using a garden hoe, work only the top inch of the topsoil around the base of plants, being careful not to disturb the roots.
	The peskiest of the pest for bush and pole beans is the Mexican bean beetle. To remove this pest, you can simply handpick it off the plant.
	Not every bug in your garden is a pest. One good or beneficial bug is the spined soldier beetle, or stinkbug.
	Diseases like bean mosaic disease and bacterial blight can happen by handling wet plants.
	When the bush beans are dying back and the pole beans look like they're wilting, that's when they are ready to be harvested.

• Weed control is very important especially in the first six weeks after planting. Weeds rob plants of sun, water and food. They also crowd plants – some young plants can't compete with weeds. The best way to control weeds is with hoeing, hand-weeding, applying herbicides and mulching. But you have to be careful not to disturb the roots. Any tough weeds should be hand pulled carefully. Be sure not to lift up the vegetable plant when weeding, especially the beans. Beans have shallow roots and a fairly weak root system.

• Using a garden hoe, work only the top inch of the topsoil around the base of plants, being careful not to disturb the roots. Be sure not to disturb the blossoms on vegetable plants when hand weeding. You should grasp the weeds close to its roots so that you're not breaking it off at the soil line. Do not irrigate, apply fertilizer or mulch a freshly weeded garden unless you remove the pulled weeds from the garden. Leaving the pulled weeds may cause re-growth.

• Now there isn't much weeding that needs to be done around the pole beans because of the trellises. The pole beans grow quickly and shade the ground with its lush foliage helping to stop the growth of weeds.

• One other thing that may hamper the growth of your beans is pests. The peskiest of the pest for bush and pole beans is the Mexican bean beetle. To remove this pest you can simply handpick the bug off the plant. Not every bug in your garden is a pest. One good or beneficial bug is the "Spined Soldier Beetle", or "Stinkbug". It feeds on the Mexican bean beetle. Just be careful to limit your pesticide usage once you've introduced this beneficial to your garden.

• You can also spread disease to bean plants through moisture. Be sure not to work around the beans when they are wet. Diseases like bean mosaic disease and bacterial blight can happen by handling wet plants. Of course, the best way to avoid diseased plants is by growing disease-resistant varieties of beans.

• Bush beans should be ready to pick in 45 to 60 days – pole beans in 60 to 85 days. Bush varieties will be ready to harvest 2 to 3 weeks after they first bloom. When the bush beans are dying back and the pole beans look like they're wilting that's when the beans are ready to be harvested

• You should harvest bush snap beans when pods are 4 to 6 inches long. The pods should be long, slender, and velvety. They should snap quickly, but the tips should still be pliable. Beans that stay on the plant too long are much less tender and flavorful and if you leave them unpicked even longer, the plant will stop producing new beans. The fastest and easiest way to harvest beans is to grasp the pod between your thumb and forefinger and pull. Also, be careful not to knock off the blooms, so that you can have more beans later.

• Pole beans should also be harvested when they are 4 to 6 inches long but before the beans inside have started to swell. Pole beans tend to stay tender on the vine longer than bush beans, but regular picking is still required to extend the harvest. You should pick every couple of days – if not you may find yourself with a glut of beans. When you have all the beans you need, you can let the remaining pods mature on the vine and use them as shell beans.

• Removing dead foliage and watering deeply can help you get more bean pods per plant. Doing this you can easily harvest two and sometimes three pole beans crops per season from one planting of vines. All bush beans exhaust themselves after producing two or three heavy pickings and are best pulled up and composted when flowering and pod setting stop.

• Beans do not keep well and should be eaten as soon as they are harvested. The best storage method is freezing, although in the past they were often preserved in salt. For best taste, canning and freezing should be done within a few hours after picking the beans. Pole beans freeze very well, keeping a firmer texture than bush beans. Just be sure to store the beans in the refrigerator in perorated plastic bags.