John

Yard long beans like hot weather, I usually plant mine after the pole beans. They won't like cooler temperatures in my experience, last time I grew them in May in my zone 9b. There are some varieties of yard long beans that are more tolerant of cold weather, I don't know which ones you have them.

Red noodle planted in May, the picture is in June.

{{gwi:22351}}

Silvia

John,

I find all the ones that I've planted do not tolerate the cold and as soon as the weather turns cool they croak. They are best planted in the late spring when the weather has warmed up nicely. The regular beans fills in the early spring gap and when they start their decline, the yard longs go into production. The fall planted regular beans once again take over when the yard longs decline thereby providing beans for the full season. Timing is important trying to outguess mother nature to have a constant fresh bean supply for meals.

Lou

The beans will be grown in containers with poles or trellises. What size containers & how many plants/container
would work best? I have 3 gal. & 6 1/2 gal. nursery pots I was hoping to use. What cooler weather varieties do you recommend & when to plant them?
The yard long are the Dau Gauk variety.
Can Arugula be planted now?
John

John - The Dau Gauk variety likes heat, the only one that I know of tolerates cold weather is the Orient Wonder, in cool season climates they start indoors and transplant when it is warm. I grow all my beans in raised beds but if I was doing containers I will probably use the 5 gallons or in your case the 6 1/2, if they are going to be on a tepee I would use 2 bean seeds per pole. Maybe somebody else can advice you better on the containers. You can sow arugula now, I have my lettuce and spinach blends in a little bit of shade but in bright light. You can sow that in a container like the ones used for beer.

Here is mine planted with lettuce

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: yard long beans

On another note, why do the big box stores always stock seeds during the wrong time of year? Winter squash aren't actually planted in the winter. Someone should tell them that.

John,

I use the Earthbox tubs to grow my veggies in, so I cannot help you on your pots question. Maybe someone else can advise you. I don't know the proper names of my yard longs, I grow a 'red noodle' and a green variety I bought from Thailand a few years back. I save some seeds each year for the next years plantings.

Lou

I grew these beans the last few summers and they are delicious, but they were a magnet for ants and aphids. Anybody else have this problem??? I only use organic controls, which so far for ants and aphids required hand-washing off with diluted soapy water - very time-consuming!!

Any suggestions???

Joycrick, I just turn the nozzle on jet and blast the yard longs a couple of days, seems to keep the aphid's impact to nil.

My Red Noodles attracted so many bugs- stink, aphids and such I am thinking about planting a few towers of them away from the garden and let the darn bugs have their way with them and hopefully keep the masses away from my main garden. Just a passing thought-who knows it might work for a while. Between the bugs and diseases I would starve if I relied on what I grew to sustain my family's existence

As the season progressed I got more and more aphids on them, but as flyingfish said I turned on the hose and blasted them away. It did not hurt the quality of the beans, until the end of the season when I had enough and knew I would be planting my fall garden. It will not deter me from planting them next summer. I will plant them in a separate plot away from my other garden. They are so delicious and grew when most other vegatables don't. I planted them in May after my spring vegatables declined in the heat.