2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[Blue-Jay]

Plant bean seeds about 2-3″ apart. Space rows 12-36″ apart. Garden spacing is the same whether growing for seed or to eat.

I've had about two spacings of seeds in a row. I don't plant seed 2 to 3 inches part. I do a minimum of 6 inches for good development of bush beans and sometime 8 inches apart. Anyway that's my opinion. Rows, I've had bush bean rows 24, 30, 36, 40 and 54 inches apart. You've seen this photo before. This is my 2020 bush bean plot. Those rows are 40 iches apart and beans almost closed up the rows. The bush plants were just voluptously massive that year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 29​

Hobb's Goose - Pole Dry. I've grown this bean way back in my early Seed Saver Exchange years. The bean was traded a fair amount through that network. SSE lost this variety for awhile. They got it back via Kent State University in Ohio that had preseved the bean. I remember the bean being quite productive but this year not so good. Out of 12 seeds I would up with only 1 single plant.

The bean goes back to the early 1800's to Absalom Hobbs who as the story goes shot a goose in Lee County Virginia in the Appalachian mountians. Absalom passed it on to his children, who passed it to theirs, eventually landing with Clinton Hobbs, who brought it to Kent OH when he became a biology professor at Kent State in 1945. Hobbs, his wife Olive and their 4 children grew the beans on their Brimfield OH property a remnant of the WWII victory gardens. They ate them as green beans and as shellouts.

Ijevan Purple King - Pole Dry. Productivity was not great but not terrible either. I dug out some beans from the freezer of Joseph Simcox's European travels. I got the seed about 4 years ago from a woman in Michiagn who had them in her basement for several years in which she got them from Joe's Sister Susan in Michigan who used to grow Joe's beans for awhile. So the seed might have had some age on them and seedling vigor might not have been the best.

Gi
Hobb's Goose - Pole Dry.......................................Ijevan Purple King - Pole Dry

 

[Heliena]

Even better news for you @Heliena, the chart that provides that distance I think is outdated or something. Because when you look at the bean seed saving page it says this -

Spacing Requirements​

Plant bean seeds about 2-3″ apart. Space rows 12-36″ apart. Garden spacing is the same whether growing for seed or to eat.

Growing Guide: Beans - SeedSavers

Dependable and easy to grow, beans produce rewarding crops in gardens across the country. These growing instructions are for common beans.

seedsavers.org

Shoot, you’re right! I have an old printout for quick reference that must more generalized.

Gosh I could fit so many beans.
Exciting.

 

[heirloomgal]

Shoot, you’re right! I have an old printout for quick reference that must more generalized.

Gosh I could fit so many beans.
Exciting.

I grow a lot of beans, and I don't isolate them. I don't grow bush beans in with the poles generally, but that's it. And I've seen very few crosses. The few times I've seen it, it tends to be regular beans growing in proximity to my runner beans, the bees wander off from the runners and wander among my other rows at times.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've had about two spacings of seeds in a row. I don't plant seed 2 to 3 inches part. I do a minimum of 6 inches for good development of bush beans and sometime 8 inches apart. Anyway that's my opinion. Rows, I've had bush bean rows 24, 30, 36, 40 and 54 inches apart. You've seen this photo before. This is my 2020 bush bean plot. Those rows are 40 iches apart and beans almost closed up the rows. The bush plants were just voluptously massive that year.

View attachment 80217

I don't do them that close either @Blue-Jay, I'm surprised they recommend planting that close together really given the size of bush plants. I for sure do 6 to 8 inches between bush plants. I probably squeeze them a bit tight between the rows, but so far it hasn't given me problems. That said, I used to grow beans much closer and when it worked I could get an amazing amount of seeds from a pretty small space, Lol.

 

[Heliena]

I grow a lot of beans, and I don't isolate them. I don't grow bush beans in with the poles generally, but that's it. And I've seen very few crosses. The few times I've seen it, it tends to be regular beans growing in proximity to my runner beans, the bees wander off from the runners and wander among my other rows at times.

This is good information that seems to be echoed other places, so if anything I aught to give my Scarlet Runners their own spot, and dont worry so much about the rest.

 

[Heliena]

I don't do them that close either @Blue-Jay, I'm surprised they recommend planting that close together really given the size of bush plants. I for sure do 6 to 8 inches between bush plants. I probably squeeze them a bit tight between the rows, but so far it hasn't given me problems. That said, I used to grow beans much closer and when it worked I could get an amazing amount of seeds from a pretty small space, Lol.

Lol Similarly before the 2024 garden season I only had a 2x4ft community garden bed, and I am baffled looking back at what I got out of that tiny bed.

 

[Triffid]

I wonder if the 2-3 inch spacing recommendation is intentional overkill, to account for losses expected when direct seeding, and for thinning out. I've read plenty of guides that advise really close sowing and then expect the gardener to thin out seedlings and leave the strongest at a much wider spacing.

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 29​

Hobb's Goose - Pole Dry. I've grown this bean way back in my early Seed Saver Exchange years. The bean was traded a fair amount through that network. SSE lost this variety for awhile. They got it back via Kent State University in Ohio that had preseved the bean. I remember the bean being quite productive but this year not so good. Out of 12 seeds I would up with only 1 single plant.

The bean goes back to the early 1800's to Absalom Hobbs who as the story goes shot a goose in Lee County Virginia in the Appalachian mountians. Absalom passed it on to his children, who passed it to theirs, eventually landing with Clinton Hobbs, who brought it to Kent OH when he became a biology professor at Kent State in 1945. Hobbs, his wife Olive and their 4 children grew the beans on their Brimfield OH property a remnant of the WWII victory gardens. They ate them as green beans and as shellouts.

Really looking forward to growing Hobbs' Goose this summer, thanks for sharing the history

 

[Michael Lusk]

One more question on the crossing. I'm going to be growing some runner beans this year which I've never grown. Does it make sense to try to keep them separate from my pole beans? I was under the impression, mistakenly it now seems, that they wouldn't cross with regular beans because they're different species. My initial thought had been to grow them on the same trellis...I may need to rethink that.

 

[flowerbug]

I wonder if the 2-3 inch spacing recommendation is intentional overkill, to account for losses expected when direct seeding, and for thinning out. I've read plenty of guides that advise really close sowing and then expect the gardener to thin out seedlings and leave the strongest at a much wider spacing.

yes, that is the recommendation i've often read.

it depends upon what i'm planting and how many seeds i have to plant. if i only have a few seeds i will give them more space so i'm not wasting seeds. when i have a lot of extra seeds i'll plant closer and then leave them.

the only times i might thin something out is if i see a bean plant that gets stuck in the heavy soil and doesn't come right up straight like the rest of them.

the closer plants might shade out a neighbor but i don't think it really makes any difference in overall production because the bigger plants will just overgrow any that are smaller. i'd rather have weeds not having any chance for light than leave more space.

as for crosses, it helps to know which traits are dominant because even if you do get a cross among recessive traits you won't know they are there until two of those line up.

i have a lot of bumblebees and other native bees in the bean patches, i don't go out of my way to decoy them but we do have a lot of other flowers around, still i do see them in the bean patches - i'm quite glad to see them and whatever they do for me seems to be working out.