How to Sidedress Snap Beans
Snap beans are one of the simplest garden vegetables to grow and rarely require sidedressing. If you want to hurry a crop along, though, you could sidedress pole beans with a low nitrogen fertilizer mid-season. Bush beans grow rapidly and don't require additional fertilizer. Instead, focus your efforts on proper watering and weeding techniques. Water beans at least weekly to keep the soil evenly moist and apply a mulch around the plants to conserve moisture. Cultivate snap beans carefully with a hoe or pull weeds by hand. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Sprinkle 1/2 cup 5-10-5 fertilizer around the base of the plants, taking care not to get the fertilizer on the leaves mid-summer when the beans are flowering.
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Cultivate gently with a hoe to mix the fertilizer into the soil. Snap beans have shallow, fragile roots so only cultivate the top inch of soil to avoid damaging the roots.
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Water the soil to activate the fertilizer. Don't work in the garden until the leaves are dry to avoid spreading disease.
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Tips & Warnings
The most important thing to remember about growing beans is planting time. Wait until the soil is slightly dry and the air is warm. Beans won't germinate in soggy, cold soils.
Bush beans are compact and don't need trellising. They produce a large crop of beans over a few weeks. Pole beans produce beans until the first frost, but need poles or a trellis to grow on.
Pick the beans everyday once they start producing. If you delay picking the beans, you'll signal them to slow production.
Rotate the beans' location in the garden annually to reduce the chances of disease.
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