I thought I'd see if anyone has a tip for making it easier to pick bush beans. I planted them in rows 30 inches apart this year (a little wider than I usually do). I will have a ton to pick. Does any of those garden carts/stools with wheels help?

Sitting on something makes a lot of things much easier for me, including picking bush beans. I use one of the seat/kneeler things - similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YN6XXZR/

Alternatively - the woman that runs our favorite farm stand for buying sweet corn told me that they simply pull up the bush bean plants and then take the beans off them since the majority of the beans the plants produce all happen at pretty much the same time; they succession plant the beans so they always have some ready to pull out and harvest.

Here's what I've come up with. It will straddle the row and I'll kneel on the back part and kinda lay on the front and then pick out in front of it. I used to have one that straddled the row and I just sat on it but it was a back breaker. Right now the beans are too small to tell how well it's going to work but I used it to pull weeds and it's not bad.

Do you mean that you kneel on those narrow board edges?
ouch!
But if it works for you,
My personal solution to making bean picking easier is to grow pole beans!

I should have waited until it was finished to show a pic. I intended to put pads on it. It's pretty comfortable but then I haven't been using it for hours. Also I can only reach about a foot and half of row before I have to move it. That might get tiresome. I might put wheels on the back yet.

I like the farmstead lady's solution.......

AnnaZ said: I like the farmstead lady's solution.......

I do too, Anna; I planted a row of bush beans this year, for the first time in quite a while, and I think that's what I'm going to do with them - I just planted them in hopes of getting some earlier beans, anyway. (No doubt another sign of old age, but it is what it is! )

AnnaZ said: I like the farmstead lady's solution.......

Is that the one where you pull the plants up and sit in the shade to pick the beans off them? Bush beans will harvest for 2-3 weeks. It seems like you'll miss a lot of beans that way. And if you wait too long to pull them out the early ones will be over ripe. Too much work goes into them from start to finish to waste them IMO.

I have another question about green beans. Do bush beans also produce climbing vines? I get my bush bean seed from the farmer's co-op from a 5 gallon bucket. I always seem to have some vines that climb all over anything they can get started on. I wonder if their vendor has trouble keeping bush and pole beans separated.

kwinch said:making it easier to pick bush beans

Yes: plant true pole beans next year!

And, Yes!
I pulled my bush beans for easiest picking, before I was fully converted to pole beans. Although, I usually picked the very first harvest without pulling, and then pulled/picked the next picking- in a few days or the next week. That way, the spot is cleared and you can reseed another line of bush beans. I don't mind snap beans as young beans (fillet) or old beans that have the actual bean inside starting to enlarge, so one timed picking can 'strip' the plants- to get the youngest and the oldest. If you prefer a certain size/age, then you must pick more often.

Pro hint: in the early spring after frost is past, plant a line of bush beans the same time you plant your poles. You'll then harvest the 'bushes' first, while the later 'poles' are maturing, then eat off those pole beans the rest of the summer. I find little difference in taste if you get the right varieties (ser below.)

If the bean on either the bush or poles get to old, you can leave them, and let them dry on the bush (or vine) for white 'shell' beans, similar to shelled pinto or great northern beans.

Bean terms:
'Snap' beans- sometimes called 'green' beans- are usually 'snapped' from the plant, cooked & eaten fresh- in the pod, or 'SNAPPED' in half and home canned or blanched and frozen.

'Snap' green beans can be either a 'bush' 'semi-vining' or vining (climbing) habit. So pick varieties that grow how you want them.

Note: 'runner' beans are of the same genus as 'snap' beans, and also originate from the Americas, but are a different species (Phaseolus coccineus) and are more popular in Great Britain than the USA.

Pole beans mature later from seeding than bush beans, and set on a smaller but continual crop, which is great for picking enough for dinner.

Bush beans mature earlier, have a concentrated set for a few weeks, then are finished for the season.
So, plant bush beans every few weeks for continued harvest all summer. Plant bush beans if you need all the beans at once (for canning, freezing, etc.)
Plant poles for handfuls of beans for dinners throughout the summer, EASIER PICKING, and for just ONE planting to last all summer.

I really like 'Blue Lake Stringless FM1K Pole' first introduced by Ferrymorris in the 1950s. Many seedsmen sell it.
https://ferrymorse.com/product...

Important: If it doesn't say 'stringless,' it will be fibrous as the bean gets older- many of the heirloom pole beans are fibrous if allowed to age a little to much- the 'Kentucky' pole varieties get fibrous, and I don't like fibrous green snap beans.

I do love fresh, steamed green 'squeaky' beans.
Good luck with your picking plans!

I think I have a grasp on the difference between bush and pole beans. But I see vines coming off my bush beans that makes me wonder if pole beans got mixed in. Here is a picture showing vines climbing up tomato cages I planted too close together.

Sorry for lousy picture. I think my old digital camera is about played out.

Yes, pole beans could certainly have gotten mixed in with the bush beans. Were the seeds all the same color and shape? There are truly an incredible number of bean varieties!

When you just buy a scoop of them out of a 5 gallon bucket they all look alike.
So bush beans should not have climbing vines like I'm seeing?

No, they shouldn't be vining if they're bush beans. Do you know what variety they are supposed to be?

I'd have to go back to the co-op to tell for sure but I'm thinking Blue Lake.

kwinch said: I'm thinking Blue Lake.

Blue lake beans come in either bush or pole varieties, and I'll bet the seeds look exactly alike- small, kidney-shaped white beans. There might be a semi-twining blue lake variety as well, but I wouldn't know.
However, looking at the seed you couldn't tell.
Certainly a few could get sprinkled from one bin to another.... especially if the same scoop is used on multiple bins.

Well I'm an idiot. Looking closer at those vines I don't think they are beans at all. They have the same color and leaves are much like beans but the leaves are always in a cluster of 3. When I trace them back to where they grow out of the soil they are not coming from the rows. I'm thinking morning glories? I seem to get a lot of these in the garden every year.

In that case - don't eat them, kwinch!

Looks like I was wrong. The more I look, most of the vines appear to be beans. I planted bush beans in rows 30 inches apart. Bush beans should produce plants that will nearly reach each other across the row. The middle of my rows are so full of vines I can't walk between them without having to snip the vines. This is going to be a mess to pick this year.

Is there any way you can put some supports up along the rows for the beans to climb on? The good thing about pole beans is that they don't take up much horizontal space if they're climbing; the bad thing is that if they aren't climbing they go all over the place