I’ve grown bush and pole beans in the vegetable garden every year for decades. They’re easy to plant, grow and harvest—a good veggie for kids and beginning gardeners to try. Most everyone likes beans and they’re a summer staple in the kitchen.

The ‘Royal Burgundy’ bush beans in my garden are nearing the end of their run. They were planted early and in a location that doesn’t get as much sun as I’d like but they’ve performed well in spite of those limitations. Last fall they produced abundantly even as the days grew shorter and the nights cooler.

The ‘Emerite’ pole filet beans I plant every year did not germinate and replanting was not successful either. Now the tomato plants shade the trellis so I won’t have any of the productive, slender haricot verts this summer. I decided to give the ‘Provider’ heirloom bush beans that did so well last year a head start by planting in a six-pack for later transplant to the garden. They did not germinate. All my bean seeds were less than two years old and stored properly. What happened?

I just realized, last week, the cause of my bean failures. Actually, it’s rather embarrassing. Pleased with the improved germination of beet, pea and corn seeds after soaking in water overnight, I applied the same technique to bean seeds. You’d think I would have figured this out before three failed attempts at planting beans in the last month.

“Do not soak seeds in advance of planting and do not over-water after sowing. Bean seeds may crack and germinate poorly if the soil moisture is too high at sowing.”

I read this in the blog post linked below and it confirmed my suspicion that soaking the seeds was my problem. When I dug through the soil in the six pack, there was no sign of the bean seeds. They rotted. Another garden lesson learned.

So I planted more ‘Provider’ bush beans today, watered them in, but I’ll be careful not to over-water.

Everything you need to know about planting, growing and harvesting beans is in this blog post, written by a Master Gardener in Northern California. There are several embedded links worth checking out as well.

How to Grow Beans

And check out my post How to Build a Bamboo Tri-pod Trellis.