DIY Network

Caring for Your Beans Caring for Your Beans From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-208

Figure A

After the beans sprout, spread mulch around their base (figure A). But be careful not to let the mulch touch the stems of the bean plants. When it's piled around the base of a plant, mulch becomes too much of a good thing and encourages rot at the soil line.

advertisement

One of the big benefits of mulch is that it helps keep moisture in the soil (figure B), so you can water less often. Both lima beans and edamame need moderate amounts of water. When it doesn't rain, give them about an inch of water per week. If beans are overwatered to the point that the soil stays soggy, the blossoms can drop off the plants.

Another benefit of mulch is that it helps suppress weeds. Most weed seeds need light in order to germinate, and a thick layer of mulch keeps the light out. Weeds that do sprout through mulch are usually fairly easy to pull by hand.

If you don’t want to hand-weed, you can use a hoe to cultivate around the beans. A swan hoe (figure C) has a narrow crescent-shaped blade set at a close angle to the handle, and its light weight and comfortable shape make it easy to use around plants.

When using a hoe to cultivate around limas or edamame, don’t let the hoe go any deeper than an inch below the soil surface (figure D). Beans are shallow-rooted, and hoeing deeper than an inch can disturb their roots.

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

Pests are usually not a big problem with limas or edamame, but both are sometimes attacked by aphids (figure E) or beetles. The best defense is an early offense, so patrol the garden regularly looking for any signs of trouble.

Aphids are small insects that suck the sap from plants. Bean aphids, which are black with yellow legs, can quickly form large colonies (figure F). One good way to control aphids is to spray them with insecticidal soap, which you can purchase at any garden center. Use a diluted solution and don't spray more often than necessary: bean plants have thin, waxy coverings on their leaves that can be damaged by highly concentrated soap sprays.

Leaves that have been skeletonized (figure G) or leaves with holes in them are signs that beetles have been around. The two beetles that are most often found on limas and edamame are bean leaf beetles and Mexican leaf beetles.

Figure E

Figure F

Figure G

• Bean leaf beetles are about one-quarter of an inch long. They are a yellowish-red color and have four or five large black spots on their backs (figure H). The adults chew bean leaves, leaving round holes as their telltale sign. You can handpick the beetles or spray with an insecticide recommended by your local extension service.

• Mexican bean beetles (figure I) are also about a quarter of an inch long and are yellowish red with black spots on their backs. They look very similar to bean leaf beetles but are more round than oval. Adults feed on the underside of leaves, making the leaves tattered and ratty. They can be controlled by handpicking or by spraying with a recommended insecticide.

Figure H

Figure I

To minimize damage from bean beetles (figure J), plant your crops early. Bean crops planted at the beginning of the growing season tend to suffer less beetle damage than those planted late in the season.

To help keep diseases at bay, never work around bean plants when they're wet. Many disease organisms live on the thin film of water that covers wet foliage, and diseases spread easily if you move and work around wet plants. So whether you're hoeing or harvesting your limas or edamame, or simply patrolling the garden, always wait until the plants are dry (figure K).

Figure J

Figure K

Harvesting

The trick to harvesting both limas and edamame is to pick them at their peak of perfection (figure L).

Both bush limas and pole limas are ready to harvest when the pods are bright green and the beans inside are plump and firm. As you harvest the pods, be careful not to break the stems or the branches or to knock off any blooms (figure M). The lima plants will continue to flower and bear pods after the first picking. You should get several large harvests off of your lima plants over a period of several weeks. When the plants exhaust themselves and are no longer producing well, it's time to pull them up.

Figure L

Figure M

With edamame, harvesting is a little different. Since all the beans on a single plant mature at the same time, the easiest way to pick them is to pull the plant up, then pick off the pods (figure N).

After the pods begin to swell, start testing your edamame plants every day. Test by opening a pod to see if the beans are fully formed. When the beans are almost touching one another, taste a raw bean (figure O). If it's mild and sweet, the edamame are ready to harvest. In just a day or two, they'll turn starchy and pass their prime.

The easiest way to harvest edamame is to clip the plants off at the soil line with a pair of hand pruners, and then pick the pods off.

Figure N

Figure O

Shelling

Both limas and edamame are called shell beans because they need to be shelled before they are eaten (figure P). The beans inside the shell are delicious, but the pods themselves are inedible.

For large limas, cut the pods with scissors (figure Q) and then scoop the beans out into a bowl. For small limas, pull the string along the seam and press the sides. The beans pop right out.

Figure P

Figure Q

Keeping pods on the edamame plants until you're ready to cook or freeze them (figure R) keeps the beans fresh and helps to maintain their flavor. When you're ready to pull the pods from the plants, give them a firm tug – the pods don't want to come off easily.

Edamame are traditionally boiled in salted water for five or six minutes (figure S); then they're drained and the beans are eaten right out of the pod. Because edamame is the only vegetable that contains all nine essential amino acids, it's sometimes called the Wonder Vegetable.

Figure R

Figure S

All beans taste best if they're eaten shortly after being harvested. Limas that can't be consumed right away will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about a week. Limas can also be blanched and frozen for longer storage.

Just like limas, edamame can be blanched and frozen for long-term storage. If you're in a hurry and don't have time to pull the pods off the stems, you can plunge an entire edamame branch into a pot of boiling water. Take it out quickly and drain before freezing. When you want a snack, just pull out the branch and cook in boiling water until the edamame is done.