A one-stop-source for everything green bean: tips and varieties for growing, best practices for harvesting plus recipe links for lots of ways to cook (both fresh & frozen) and preserve for later- this is your ultimate green bean guide.
This green bean guide is a part of a continuing series of Ultimate Guides where you can find all kinds of growing information and delicious recipes for cooking – both fresh and preserving – a specific fruit or vegetable. See more fruit and vegetable guides here. Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them and purchase I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.
I think next to tomatoes, green beans may be the most-planted summer crop for home gardeners. It helps that they are SO easy to grow - basically stick the seeds and the ground and they will grow, if the birds, cats, slugs, or cutworms don't get them first. But then they grow so fast, it's easy to just plant more and still get a good harvest!
Which means a good green bean guide is needed, to go along with our other popular growing guides, that can be your go-to article for green beans, not only why and how to grow and harvest them, but lots and lots of recipes!
I love including AOC favorites and searching for the best other recipes for you - for cooking with both fresh and frozen beans and the best ways to preserve them (including my super popular non-blanched freezing method, of course!).
Green Bean Guide
String? Snap? Green?
Many people (especially older people) still refer to these beans as "string beans," since older varieties often had a tough string that ran down the seam of the pod and needed to be removed. This trait has mostly been bred out of modern varieties, thank goodness (it's why I didn't like them as a kid!).
Now they are usually called "snap" beans or just green beans. "Snap" refers to the fact that these beans are picked at an immature stage of dry beans (like navy, black, and pinto) making them so tender it's easy to snap the ends off to prepare. I prefer calling them simply "green beans", since that's their color - and because I don't usually snap the ends off, it's a LOT faster to group them together and just cut the ends off all at once!
What about "haricot vert" or "filet?" The first is just the French for "green bean" and the second is another French term that has come to describe, in the US, specific varieties that are thin and very tender.
Why grow green beans?
- They contain healthy lutein, beta-carotene, violaxanthin, and neoxanthin similar to other carotenoid-rich vegetables like carrots and tomatoes (the concentrated chlorophyll content of green beans covers the typical bright colors found in other vegetables).*
- They have good antioxidants, more than other bean-pea family foods (like snow peas, etc.).*
- They contain the mineral silicon which is very important for bone health and for healthy formation of connective tissue.*
- All beans add nitrogen to the soil, making them great plants for organic vegetable gardens.
- They are delicious!
Green Bean Guide: Best Varieties
Note: There are a lot more, of course- these are the varieties that have produced prolific & tender beans for us.
There are two types of green beans: pole beans which require a trellis or staking and bush beans that spread up to 2 feet but do not need support. It seems to be much easier to find bush bean seeds, but I find them harder to harvest (think: lots of bending over…) and bothersome to have to keep planting for a long harvest. Pole beans are easy to harvest and produce until frost. Once the trellis is set, you don't have to think about them again except to water and harvest (standing up!).
Pole Beans- they take longer to mature (10 to 11 weeks), but they produce about three times the yield of bush beans in the same garden space and keep on bearing until the first frost.
Both of the varieties below are considered "filet" beans, but can be picked small or larger and still stay tender:
1. Emerite - my favorite bean of all, so I wrote a whole article about why they are awesome.
2. Fortex - I now plant a row of these along with Emerite, since they are SO long, providing lots of green bean for the space.
Bush Beans- they produce the bulk of their crop over a 2-week period so plant at 2-3 week intervals until about 2 months before the first frost for a season-long harvest. They are great for container gardening.
1. Jade - a bush filet bean that produces a lot (and for longer in my garden than other bush varieties) and stays tender.
2. Golden Wax - This is a great producer of yellow beans.
3. Amethyst - I don't grow many purple bean plants, but usually plan for a couple since they're so pretty (they turn green when cooked, though). This is a thinner purple variety, similar to the filet beans our family prefers.
4. Blue Lake - this seems to be the 'standard' that most grow and some prefer the taste of these. They are flatter and tougher than the filet beans I've listed, but are worth trying out to see what your family prefers (we grew them, but didn't care for them).
Flopping over mature bush green beans, making them harder to harvest than pole beans.
How to Grow Green Beans
- All beans are sensitive to cold and grow best in air temperatures of 70° to 80°F, and soils at 55-60°F or above. Soggy, cold soil will cause the seeds to rot.
- Sow seeds outdoors only after last spring frost- they may not survive transplanting.
- Plant 1 inch deep, with bush beans 2 inches apart and pole beans 3 inches apart.
- Set up trellises for pole beans, like our "cattle panels” above made from basic fencing and metal poles, or 4-5 legged bamboo teepees wrapped with twine to create a trellis system (you can see this in the first photo of this post)
- Water regularly, preferably from the ground (soaker hoses or drip irrigation) - overhead watering encourages mildew and diseases.
- Beans only need a good compost covering as fertilizer - too much nitrogen fertilizer will produce lots of foliage but few beans. See our no-till, weed-free planting method for beans, corn and more here.
How to Harvest Green Beans
- Look for firm pods 6-10 inches long and pinch off bush beans using your thumbnail and fingers, like shown above (or you can use scissors if you remember them). What you want to avoid is pulling on the plants, as that can pull them right out of the ground (um, yes, I learned that first-hand…).
- Harvest every 1-3 days to encourage continuous production - if the pods swell to fully ripe, the plants will stop producing and die, which is why you should pick and discard any overripe beans you missed from previous pickings.
- Be sure to harvest and cultivate beans when the foliage is dry or you may spread disease spores.
- To save seeds for the next year, stop picking in late fall and let the beans swell fully with seeds. Bring them inside to dry and then shell them, storing until the next season.
Green Bean Guide Recipes
Green Bean Preserving Recipes
How to Freeze Green Beans without Blanching (+ video tutorial)
Canned Pickled Beans {with Mustard-Garlic Variation}
How to Freeze Green Beans by Blanching First @Thrifty Frugal Mom (just to be a balance - decide for yourself which is better!)
Quick Refrigerator Pickled Beans @Flavour & Savour
Farmstand Spicy Dilly Beans @ Shrinking Kitchen
How to Pressure Can Green Beans @Common Sense Homesteading
Preserve them in a Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Freezer Dinner @New Leaf Wellness
Recipes using Frozen Green Beans
Slow Cooker Sweet Chili Chicken & Vegetables
Long-Cooked Green Beans with Onions & Bacon
Individual Chicken-Tomato Shepherd’s Pies
Quick Bone Broth Chicken & Vegetable Soup
Creole Green Beans @Flavor Mosaic
Dinner in a Dish (use a homemade spice-mix, though) @Southern Plate
Asian-Style Stir Fried Green Beans @Just Putzing Around the Kitchen
Recipes Using Fresh Green Beans
Greek Style Pasta Salad with Green Beans, Tomatoes, Salami and Feta
Thai Inspired Turkey or Chicken Vegetable Curry
Italian Sausage Pasta Primavera
Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Tomatoes
Awesome, Easy Garlic Green Beans
Slow Cooker Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup
Crispy Green Bean "Chips" @Whole New Mom
Oven Roasted Green Beans @Frugal Living Mom
Crispy Baked Green Bean Fries with Sriracha Sauce @Joyful Healthy Eats
Greek Green Bean Salad @Peas & Crayons
Potato, Green Bean, and Bacon Soup @An Affair From the Heart
Smothered Green Beans @Plain Chicken
Bacon Green Bean Bundles with Brown Sugar Glaze @Five Heart Home
Fresh Green Bean Salad with Balsamic Dressing @Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Green Beans with Honey Pecan Butter and Cranberries @Real Housemoms
Bacon Ranch Green Beans @Dinner at the Zoo
Real Food Green Bean Casserole @The Novice Chef
Chinese Green Beans with Ground Turkey over Rice @The Weary Chef
For more growing information see Farmer's Almanac and Rodale's Organic Life.
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Lori Crowe says
I love your site! I took your advice and will be planting Emirite and Fortex green beans. What is the best method of preserving this type of bean? I thought I read somewhere you should not can French filet beans. Is that correct? What would you recommend?
Jami says
I'm so glad you like the site! I've canned these beans (since they're the only type I've grown, lol) and they were fine. I pickle them, too, but mostly I freeze them - unblanched (I think both of these recipes/methods are in this green bean guide!).
Corrie says
Hi, fellow Oregonian! I'm going to grow green beans for the first time in 2020 (Emirite)--I was so excited to see that you like this particular variety.
Jami says
Hello, back. 🙂 You will LOVE them - oh, and green beans from the store will never look good again!
jeanette goos says
My fav is the Fortex, i have been growing them for years, usually buy them from PineTree seeds, very reasonable prices. However here in Missouri the Japanese Beetles have just devoured them this year. I tried the asparagus or yard long bean for the first time and it did very well, and had no bug problem. I grew about 5 different kinds of pole beans and the long bean is the only one still going strong.
Jami says
Oh how disappointing, Jeanette. 🙁 That's good to know about the yard-long - I grew them one year and they didn't grow as well as Fortex for me, so I stopped. Looks like they were your insurance policy!
Megan - The Creative Vegetable Gardener says
Great post! I've been growing Trilogy from Johnny's which has purple, green and yellow mixed together. So fun! I also freeze mine raw. Way easier.
Jami says
Oh, I haven't heard of that bean, Megan - that sounds really fun!
Shellie says
It has always been Kentucky Wonder pole beans for this gal. They grow so beautifully and put out an abundant harvest. Hearty and tolerant of many conditions. I haven't tried the purple variety yet, but they sound interesting. Thanks for the great post, Jami 🙂
Jami says
If I weren't so partial to the filet-style beans, I'd probably be in that same bean-camp, Shellie. 🙂
Angie Rose says
I do really enjoy how fast green beans grow! I think they are one of the very first vegetable crops that made me feel like growing a garden was indeed possible. I think some varieties produce the most beautiful flowers! I've had more luck with pole beans since critters have a harder time reaching them. Such great tips Jami, thanks for sharing 🙂
Jami says
Oh, that's another great reason to grow pole beans, Angie! And I have some great pictures of the sweet purple flowers that Emerite puts out. 🙂
sharron says
Have you grown romano beans? My favorite; buttery, yummy...
Jami says
No, I haven't, Sharron. I'm not usually a fan of flat, 'beany' type of beans (why I like the filet beans) - but your description is seriously making me think twice about that. 😉
Shelly says
What a great guide Jami! I just made your awesome easy green bean recipe last night with the first harvest of our green and wax beans. It's so good.
We grow Blue Lake bush and pole beans for green beans and the golden wax beans too. We grew purple beans a few years back but my kids were so dissapointed when they turned greeen after cooking. We haven't grown them since then but I think next year we'll give them a try again.
Michelle Marine says
Great tips, Jami. My favorite green beans to grow are Calima Bush Beans - they're prolific and delicious and just about ready to pick in my garden now. 🙂
Jami says
I haven't heard of that variety, Michelle - I'll have to put in on my "to try" list!
Stefanie says
I tried purple beans for the first time this year and I will never go back! They are so gorgeous and a breeze to harvest. No more hunting for beans in a jungle of green, my purple gems stand out so beautifully!
Jami says
I do love that, too, Stefanie! The yellow wax beans are easy to harvest because of that, too.