How to Grow Beans in Florida

Beans are one of the fastest, most rewarding Florida crops, as long as you plant them in the warm shoulders of the year and skip the brutal mid-summer.

Snap beans are a warm-season crop that crops in as little as 50 days, perfect for Florida's spring and fall windows. They dislike both frost and extreme summer heat, so time them for the mild stretches.

When to plant in Florida

Beans resent transplanting, so sow seed directly once frost has passed. See your region on the beans page.

Varieties for Florida

• 'Contender' and 'Provider' — fast, heat-tolerant bush beans.
• 'Roma II' — flat Italian bush bean.
• Pole types ('Kentucky Wonder') — climb a trellis and crop over a longer window in tight space.
• Southern (cow) peas — if you want a true summer legume, these handle the heat when snap beans can't.

How to grow them

• Sun and soil: full sun and well-drained, compost-amended soil. Beans fix their own nitrogen, so go easy on high-nitrogen feed.
• Spacing: sow 1 inch deep, 2-4 inches apart; trellis pole types.
• Water: steady moisture, especially at flowering and pod-set.
• Succession: sow a short row every 2-3 weeks for a continuous pick.

Pests and problems

Watch for aphids, bean leaf beetles, stink bugs and, in the soil, root-knot nematodes (rotate and use resistant ground). Rust and bacterial blights show up in humidity, so give airflow and avoid wetting the leaves.

Harvest

Pick snap beans young and tender, before the seeds bulge, every day or two to keep the plants producing. Bush beans give a concentrated flush; pole beans crop for weeks.

Source: UF/IFAS Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103); UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions.

When to plant in your region

Pick your region to see exactly when to plant beans where you garden.

See also: Beans in the plant library →

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