For anyone that plants bush beans, how do you space your bush beans?

According to mature spread. I have no idea what 'the book' states.

Dan

Go ahead and plant 9 like the square foot gardening book says.

The one problem you may run into is not enough air flow between the plants. If this becomes a problem, pull out a few. You'll have to try it out. Or, you may want to try planting 4 or 5, and then a week or two later, plant the rest. That way they won't mature all at once.

I always plant most things closer together than what the packet says.

If this becomes a problem, pull out a few.

Or save yourself the waste of seed and time and water and instead space 6-8-10" first and obviate the need to kill something because of following a general guideline that doesn't pertain to everywhere and all varieties and skill levels and soil depths and etc.

Dan

I've planted bush beans 9/sf several times and they've done just fine. This year though, I'm going to try giving them a little more space and planting 4/sf or 6" spacing. I'm curious to see what, if any, difference it makes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

I have never grown bush beans and I was looking at pictures online at full grown plants and wondering if they would have enough space at 9/sq. ft. I will plant one square with 9 one with 4 and see what happens!!

I planted bush limas last year at 6/square foot and that seemed about right. I think 9 would be too close...Not sure if regular bush beans would be different than the limas...

But based on what else has been said here, 6 seems like a good compromise between 9 and 4. :)

Best of Luck!
Susan

I've planted my bush beans six inches apart. Out of about 100 bean plants last year, we got over 50 pounds of green beans.

Might not be a lot compared to some other folks on here, but I think that is pretty good.

I use raised beds and don't exactly fill one square with the same thing - I usually plant green beans around the perimeters of the raised beds and then corn, peppers, or something else in the middle that doesn't require picking as often.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog