2026 GTS Grow Reports - Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

[suffling (Spencer Suffling)]

This is a place to share your experiences growing common beans in 2026!

We encourage any and all discussion around growing common beans, but especially appreciate reports on growing out the 2026 GTS Seed Share mixes. Also please consider saving seeds from your best plants and returning them to the Seed Share program!

2025 Grow Reports

2025 bean reports

2023 Dry Bush Bean Grow Reports

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We direct sow common beans when the soil is 70 degrees F (21 deg C), which isn’t until around June 1 here in Corbett, OR. You might get away with planting a bit earlier, but remember that beans don’t really like cold conditions and consider waiting for a warm spell. But some people in our group have good results planting as early as March.

Spacing recommendations vary for common beans, in my experience a spacing of 6 in. seems to work well, but you may choose to crowd plants if your goal is maximum diversity more than overall yield. Dry beans may benefit from relatively more space to ensure better air flow during drying, where fresh beans may tolerate more crowding, especially fresh eating pole types.

It’s best to stop watering when pods begin to dry down, which can be challenging in areas with fall rain. If needed, you can pull entire plants and finish drying indoors. You can pop dry beans out of their pods by hand as a fun activity, or pound in a pillowcase for medium scales, or drive over tarped beans on larger scales. Winnowing with a breeze or box fan can work well, screens can be helpful on larger scales.

When my community did taste testing of maximum diversity dry beans, we found that they were absolutely delicious, with varying but completely compatible texture. I think some people worry about varying cooking times for diverse dry beans, but we found that it’s not an issue with a simple pot of beans. Cook until the firmest beans are tender, and the smaller beans will begin to break down into a rich broth.

[suffling (Spencer Suffling)]

I know some of you are interested in growing pole beans on corn and I’d love to hear more about your experiences.

Last year I had the most success yet after adding more varieties of “cornfield” or “cornhill” beans to my mix. I also read a hint from Carol Deppe that Withner’s True Cornfield is a superior option, and they did outshine the others for me. The only place I could find Withner’s was Peace Seedlings here in OR. The plants were extremely vigorous, and produced by far the most pods per plant, the most beans per pod, and the largest beans! Wow!

Other varieties in the mix were Cocalico Red Cornhill and Amish Nuttle (from Roughwood Seeds), Cherokee Cornfield (Hardy Seeds via Carl Barnes of Oklahom) and Northern Pintos. They all did decently, I think perhaps the Cherokee Cornfield also stood out as something special. Still need to do some taste testing!

[Joseph_Lofthouse]

I had a naturally occurring hybrid bean go feral in my field. They found a home within the corn. They grow delicate, not like an aggressive pole bean—more wispy. So they don’t tear down the cornstalks with a lot of biomass.

I never expected beans to volunteer! The trait seems more valuable to me than their corn-friendliness. They grow in other places in the field also, and I allow them, because they coexist lightly with the garden.

[MichaelFomhar]

I would love to have a bean go feral around my corn patch! I haven’t had such luck yet. I think it might have to do with my falls being so wet and any beans laying about just sprout then, rather than waiting till spring.

[MichaelFomhar]

Just efficient use of space was reason enough for me to try. It took a few tries to get it right, but I eventually found good varieties that don’t overpower the corn. I trialed a number of varieties from GRIN that had corn in the name or were mentioned as being grown in that way traditionally. This year I’m attempting crosses with the best few.

The '24 GTS maximum diversity mix had a lot of pole types that got along well with my corn also. And last years replanting was even better! I had more than enough beans to eat and contribute this year.

I plant my first corn a week before may to the first or second week, and beans after the corn is 5 to 12 inches high depending on how quickly they’re growing. I plant them into the side of the hilled rows and pat them down so they make good contact.

[witchy]

I am planting a bean and cucumber play pyramid again this year. A grown up can stand inside it and my kids love the shade inside in the summer. I have pole beans from going to seed, rattlesnake pole beans i seed saved myself from prior years and whatever beans survived from last year that are popping up as volunteers.

I direct sow under dollar store wastebaskets because we have wild bunny pressure (and squirrels and birds).

[MamaRachael (Rachael)]

Okay y’all. I’m curious,can you get two colors of beans from the same plant?

I could’ve swore i pulled all the pods from one plant, it running up a trellis, though all these pods were all low to the ground.

And how do y’all decide which ones to save for seed?

[MamaRachael (Rachael)]

I was back out yesterday and confirmed both are from the same plant. I didn’t know that was possible!

[emei]

My pole beans are in an attempted Three Sisters bed. I’m such a beginner but it seems to be going well so far. Beans around the corn, squash (and melons) on the edges, sweet potatoes in the middle. I don’t much like the idea of spacing. We will see!

[avery.bowron]

First bean flowers in my three sisters/milpa bed. These are from Carol Deppe’s “beefy resilient grex”. Which is a selection of descendants from a random cross she observed in a seed increase grow out and liked better that both parents.

[pib (Paul Bonser)]

I planted my GTS max diversity beans on the 28th of last month. Surprisingly only a couple of them got eaten by rabbits or grasshoppers, so I got a pretty full row of them. I put them by a fence so bush or pole should both be able to grow well. Some of the pole beans are just starting to climb now. It’s been a pretty hot month so they are not growing super fast I think, but look to be at the stage where they are about to take off (and probably suffer through the rest of summer).

It occurred to me after the fact that I should have probably grouped the beans I planted based on whether they looked like green beans or dry beans. I just grabbed them randomly, though, so now I will have to try and figure out which is which as they grow. I know a lot of dry beans also work well as green beans, but then some are just too stringy or whatnot.

[Suluye (Sly)]

Ooh I would love some tips over how to identify whether or not a bean looks to be for dry use or fresh eating! Could it be that the more patterned pretty looking plump beans are generally for dry use and the pale, slim beans for green bean?

So far I haven’t had any stringy inedible beans that I picked for steaming and I’m just leaving one or two pods to mature for seed saving from ever single plant so I can try to organize I bit better next year.

[pib (Paul Bonser)]

I don’t know any sure-fire way of telling, but beans that are “only green beans” tend to have smaller, more cylindrical seeds than beans that can also be shelling beans or dried beans. A lot of heirloom varieties seem to be described as being good for both green beans and dry beans, but those tend to have normal dry bean shaped seeds.

The royalty purple and contender beans “look like” green beans to me, but then some of the others also say they are good as green beans.

[poppy]

This is not a GTS grow report, just a dry bush bean Phaseolus vulgaris grow report.

I grew two beds of beans this year (beds are approximately 3 - 4 feet wide, maybe 6 feet long?)

Here are the Lofthouse beans on July 15th (13 days after sowing):

Seems like around 30 Lofthouse landrace plants came up.

Here are the two beds on Sept 14th (74 days since sowing):

The further bed (more yellowing, maturing earlier) is a Maggie x Provider breeding grex from Experimental Farm Network.

The bed in the foreground (more green, later-maturing) is Lofthouse landrace dry bush beans, also from EFN.

These seeds were sown July 2nd (late for my region).

Earliest dry pods were noticed Sept. 3rd (2 months from sowing) from the Maggie grex.

Earliest Lofthouse dry beans were noticed Sept. 18 (roughly 2 and a half months from sowing).

Most harvesting was done mid September.

Heavy rains in the fall caused many pods to start to mold and rot, so I had to make the choice to cut the plants and hang them indoors to let them finish drying, despite many immature pods still on the plants.

Earlier harvested Maggie grex beans skewed more white:

later harvested beans included more diversity:

Lofthouse beans:

This year is just about growing out seeds so I don’t have to buy seeds for future gardens, there was no selection process this year - I’m just trying to maximize seed.

I’m hoping to grow more varieties of beans next year, I have Carol Deppe’s Gaucho bush bean and a pole bean (Volga German Siberian).

Debating how to grow these in the future - whether to keep track of the morphology of the seed I plant so I can better remember and track phenotypical changes to plants and seed over time. I want to interplant and encourage crossing still, but I also am so curious whether the “Holstein cow” seeds tend to produce mostly beans that look like Holsteins, or if it’s more of a recessive phenotype expressing across the population (with parents that may not look like Holsteins).

I’m also hoping to diversify my legumes. I don’t have any Phaseolus coccineus but I have fava beans (dry beans sold as food in grocery stores, as well as some packets), some dry lupini beans (also sold as food in a grocery store), and a bag of 15 bean soup which has chickpeas, limas, and various common beans I hope to plant. I also bought some Lathyrus sativus seeds and hope to grow those out. Lathyrus latifolius volunteers pretty commonly (my neighbors hate it), which is a sign I think L. sativus will be a productive food crop here.

EDIT:

final harvest weights of dry beans:

• 745 grams of Maggie x Provider, and
• 988 g of Lofthouse landrace

The numbers aren’t 100% accurate, it’s possible some of the Maggie grex weight was given away (and not recorded), but it would have been relatively small amounts (maybe 2 - 5 seed packets?).