I did the opposite! I love the look of pole beans and grow cool things like lettuce under them.I also like the longer growing time. I had the whole bed set up for pole beans... and they ended up being bush beans! Did a second planting and the same thing! I tried a 3rd planting, but I think the bush beans shaded out the pole beans! I might try starting some in pots to throw in the ground for after the bush beans finish. We have a long growing period, usually going into late Oct-early Nov.. Find some bamboo, or put some strings up with a tall pole, QUICK! They grow fast and are hard enough to find when you can walk underneath them! I can't imagine letting them sprawl and finding them all! Nancy

nancyjane: well, at least she knew it smelled like COW poop- that City gal!!ha Now pig & chicken poop smell entirely different but 'poop' never- the- less! The manure x the dairies around here smells awful ... those cows do not belong in a dirt enclosure & fed heaven- knows- what from bins... they belong in a green pasture to eat normal 'cow food'-grass! The cow manure x a pasture smells different & when dry & dug in the garden actually smells good & makes me homesick for the 'country'which cracks my husband (city slicker) up! Thanks for all the help everyone!! : I put the cut beans in boiling water for about 2 minutes, drained them & fill the kettle with cold water and ice cubes. I then drained the cooled beans & filled gallon zip-loc bags half full, squeezed the air out & froze them. I did not dry them first so wonder what that will do to the texture when I thaw them? Yes, I like to add onion, garlic & crumbled bacon in them & for me I add some vinegar like the Germans back home did but hubby wants none of that vinegar! It has been a long time since I grew beans so I had forgotten how to freeze them correctly as earlier I later just boiled the beans I froze with out blanching them first before freezing & they were TOUGH when thawed & cooked! I had forgotten how many beans a 10 ft. single row would keep producing! The yellow bush wax beans are not quite ready yet & I do like the too!

It will all depend on the variety of course and to a degree, on the weather too. But as a general guide, 3-4 weeks as Wayne said. Then they taper off fairly quickly. But yes you have time for a fall crop if you don't wait too long to plant them. Dave

The remarkable amount of poor information you're getting is in part because you haven't properly stated your question, nor provided the pertinent information to get a clear response. First of all, as was stated, your zone is crucial, it determines when you plant, but also how quickly the heat comes on in summer, which is what will likely be the reason your peas stop producing. Secondly, are you growing for fresh peas, drying, or seed crop? This will determine how you manage the plot and whether you can be assured of enough time to ripen a second crop in the same plot. Whether you plant in single rows or wide beds also makes a difference - wide raised beds may dry out sooner, but thiskly planted wide beds will often maintain cooler soil temps, thus prolonging harvest. It also makes a difference in deciding which varieties to plant, assuming you are interested in optimal yield, and not conducting some agronomic experiment. The days to maturity that you are basing your calculations on is also flawed, because aside from differences in varieties, you will be planting as soon as the ground can be worked, which is not the same as optimal growing conditions. Planting a few weeks after last frost date may well give the same harvest window as you get by planting ASAP, because growing conditions (soil temp, light, water) would be more favorable. All this being said, depending on what the weather brings, your harvest could extend anywhere from 10 to 50 days... that is simply part of the nature of gardening. If you are growing for dried peas, just do a few harvests of fresh peas at first and then let the plants mature and dry as they follow their natural course. When you stop picking fresh peas, the plant will stop producing more. Once the plants stop setting fruit and have started to dry, you can remove them from the field and hang them to dry elsewhere, thus freeing your beds for subsequent plantings, but unless you undersow the peas or use transplants, you will have to calculate your second planting based on a fairly wide (and at this point unknowable) set of criteria. It is definitely not a simple question.