Do you love to grow different beans in your vegetable garden? Why not? Beans are popular for their nutrient value and easy-maturing. There are different varieties of beans in the States. You can choose to snap beans and pole beans, bush limas, and many more. If you are planning to go for bean gardening, then you can count on another bean that is the Kentucky Wonder Pole bean.

Kentucky wonder beans are easy to cope with in your garden area, vigorously growing and easy-maturing beans. In this read, you will learn the best way to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans. Apparently, what are the care, planting, and harvesting tricks to get those fresh, healthy beans from the garden to your plate? So, take a look at the best way to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans with easy and effective Dos.

Back to the Wonderland of Kentucky Pole beans

Well, these tasty, affordable beans were first on the market back in 1864. And the former name was Texas Beans. However, after a few years in 1877, the Texas bean became Kentucky Wonderland pole beans and started its booming journey in the vegetable garden of the States.

Generally, these beans grow great in the fall season after the last frosty weather of the season and it grows quickly with handsome production. Why pole beans are good for health? According to research in Utah State University extension, pole beans are a really good source of protein, low cholesterol, and high fiber and complete the thirst for vitamin C as well. The USDA growing zone 2-10 are probably okay for growing the KW pole beans.

So, what are the physical characteristics of Kentucky pole beans? These green beans are less bushy and have green, upward stalks. There are yellow flowers and side shoots in the pole bean plant. It needs support to grow as it is a long plant.

The KW pole beans can be long up to 6-8 feet, and these beans are stringless. It is the best way to pick your beans when they are young and tender for the best taste. However, when you see the white flowers coming out, a couple of days later the beans will appear.

Moreover, the Kentucky Wonder pole beans are not good for your health they are also good plants to improve your soil quality. Nitrogen fixation is a process where the plant nodules would fix the atmospheric nitrogen and store them as a plant nutrient. Mostly, leguminous plants are famous for nitrogen fixation. Following this, the KW pole beans are also favoring the soil by fixing nitrogen as soil nutrients. Again, the pole beans are very generous and a good pairing plant for many other plants like squash plants, and spinach. How it serves the other plants? We know that the pole beans grow taller as a result gives shade to your garden. So other cooler vegetables that might rot in the hot sun, grow really well under the shade of Kentucky wonder pole beans.

In a nutshell, it is good for health, soil and again for shade-loving veggie plants. What a goodie plant, isn’t it?

Planting tips for the KW pole beans

You can grow beans directly from seed germination and with proper steps your pole beans will pop out in a good number. Take a look at the best way to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans and the necessary planting needs:

• Seed germination: Take good quality pole bean seeds from any garden center/ from any garden with good bean harvesting and soak the beans in water overnight. After soaking you can plant them directly into your garden bed. The seed should be at least 2.5 cm deep into the soil. Don’t forget to arrange the pole in your garden because the Kentucky wonder pole beans grow very tall and merge with those poles.
  This makes harvesting easy. You can just stand over and pick those fresh beans whereas in bush beans you would probably need to bend down. Try to collect the heirloom variety for saving your own pole bean seeds. Many people make the mistake of watering the seeds after sowing, don’t do that. The gardener should not water the seed until they sprout/ peek out from the soil. It is recommended to sow seeds within 2 weeks intervals for maximum bean production in the growing season.

• Seed spacing: This natural veggie would love to grow in a healthy way if you give them proper spacing. For seed-to-seed distance, it is 2-3 inches apart; row-to-row distance would be 23-25 inches apart.
• Sunlight: It is necessary to give your Kentucky wonder pole beans 8-10 hours of full sun. The green pole beans love to grow under the summer sun and a shade tree for other summer veggies.
• Temperature and growing season: The KW pole beans grow best at 20-30°C and the growing season is apparently the early April-late June.
• Irrigation: The beans would love dripping irrigation. Do not overwater the bean plants. One to half inches of water is okay for the pole beans. A gardener will not water the pole bean plants daily because the bean plants do not love wet feet. So, watering once or twice a week is okay for the pole beans. Overwatering the pole bean plants can facilitate bean diseases.
• Soil Mix and pH: The green beans love to grow in well-drained soil with a pH 6-7. Soil texture sandy, loamy even silt is preferable for the pole beans. But well-drainage is the key. The pole beans love slightly acidic soil and if you can’t provide it with good fertile soil don’t be upset. Kentucky wonder pole beans can fix their own nutrients and even makes your soil fertile.
• Fertilization and Mulching: KW pole beans do not require the bulk of fertilization from the very beginning but after it reaches the growing season, you might need to add some. Again mulching can be a good idea for the pole beans that keep the soil favorable for the beans in a way. Mulching is great for warming the topsoil in which these long beans can thrive. After the half of growing season, use the manure, green compost/homemade compost to add nutrient value to your green pole beans.

So, yes these are the major steps, you should carry out while thinking of the best way to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans. It’s not like you can only grow this summer veggie if you have a large garden bed/ space.

Many gardeners have a success story of planting the beans in potting mix. Your potting mix will contain 20% perlite, 60% garden soil and 20% fresh compost to boost up the green beans growth. In case of the garden pots, the potting mix will depend on your container size. So, adjust the amount of compost and soil according to that.

Harvesting the pole beans

When the beans are 5-7 inches long and have thicker skin, they are perfect for picking.  After 1-2 moths of sowing the seeds, you can expect the flowering and the vine beans to pop out. You can harvest the pole beans and even store them for your delicious dishes and again store these heirloom seeds for the next summer. The choice is yours.

However, after you carry out the best way to grow Kentucky Wonder Pole beans, you also need to check the bean diseases. The most common pole bean diseases happen due to the over-watering. The main diseases are root rot, bean blight, white mold, etc. So, a veggie gardener should protect his pole beans from these diseases.

It takes a little time and effort to pamper your pole beans and you will be blessed with the bean harvest.

FAQ

Take a look at the interesting FAQs relating to the best way to grow Kentucky Wonder Pole beans:

How long does it take to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans?
It probably takes 2-3 months after sowing seeds to get your maximum amount of beans from garden. Though there are other factors that trigger the pole bean generation but in most cases, the time-lapse is for 50-70 days.

What is the best fertilizer for pole beans?
Though the pole beans generate nutrients by themselves but in the growing season they actually need some fertilizer. Nitrogen is already on their count, so put some phosphorus fertilizer- liquid/ granular, home-made compost and bone meals for extra-ordinary yield.

How do you increase the yield of pole beans?
You should sow more seeds and continue picking up the mature pole beans to get the most harvest from your pole bean garden.  And you can expect to get 3-5 pole beans/ more from each pole.

Conclusion

I think your pole beans will not make you upset with its quick-easy growing habit. Kentucky poles beans are great for your garden soil and are regularly served with delicious bean dishes. The maximum number of pole beans depends on how you look at the bean plants. I have already given a brief about the best way to grow Kentucky wonder pole beans. Don’t forget to follow the above steps and you will not surely regret it.

Grow wonder pole beans and make the most edible, nutritious and green harvest from your own home garden.