Great Northern Bean

Pests & beneficial insects

🐛 Prone to: Aphids

Aphids

Aphididae

Curled leaves, sticky honeydew and ants on patrol — usually with something already eating them.

, Spider mites

Spider mites

Tetranychidae

Fine pale stippling in hot, dusty, dry weather. Visible webbing means you are already late.

, Cutworms

Cutworms

Noctuidae

A seedling lying beside its own stump in the morning, cut clean through at soil level.

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Attract Hoverflies

Hoverflies

Syrphidae

The adults only drink nectar. It is the larvae that eat the aphids.

, Lacewings

Lacewings

Chrysopidae

Golden-eyed adults that mostly drink; larvae that hunt like small alligators.

, Ladybugs

Ladybugs

Coccinellidae

The one predator here where the adults hunt as hard as the larvae do.

, Parasitic wasps

Parasitic wasps

Braconidae, Ichneumonidae and relatives

Pinhead-sized, stingless, and lethal to aphids and caterpillars from the inside.

, Predatory mites

Predatory mites

Phytoseiidae

Too small to see without a hand lens, and the main thing holding spider mites down.

, Minute pirate bugs

Minute pirate bugs

Anthocoridae

Two to three millimetres, and both stages hunt — thrips and spider mites, thirty a day.

, Ground beetles

Ground beetles

Carabidae

Night-active ground hunters, taking slugs, cutworms and leatherjackets at soil level.

to keep them in check — plant African MarigoldGreat, French MarigoldGreat and YarrowGood nearby.

Growing from seed

Direct-sow Great Northern Bean outdoors about 1 weeks after your last frost, keeping seeds in warm soil (around 20–25 °C). Seeds usually come up in around 8 days. Grow in full sun, spaced about 10 cm apart. Expect to harvest in roughly 90 days.

Great Northern Bean seed rarely stays viable beyond 3 years — track what's still worth sowing.

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  Growing Beans: Bush or Pole, Snap or Dry

  Beans are the crop most likely to be called easy and most likely to be grown wrong. Almost every decision — where they go, what you feed them, when you pick — follows from two questions you answer before you sow: how tall does this one get, and are you eating the pod or the seed?

  Read the guide

Companion Planting

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  Buchii Lavender
  

  Buchii LavenderExcellent pair

  • ❧Buchii Lavender attracts Hoverflies and Parasitic wasps, which prey on the Aphids that attack Great Northern Bean
  • ❧Great Northern Bean fixes nitrogen in the soil that Buchii Lavender feeds on
  • ❧Great Northern Bean draws Bees and Bumblebees that improve pollination for both
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  round leaf lavender
  

  round leaf lavenderExcellent pair

  • ❧round leaf lavender attracts Hoverflies and Parasitic wasps, which prey on the Aphids that attack Great Northern Bean
  • ❧Great Northern Bean fixes nitrogen in the soil that round leaf lavender feeds on
  • ❧Great Northern Bean draws Bees and Bumblebees that improve pollination for both
• 
  African Marigold
  

  African MarigoldGreat pair

  • ❧African Marigold attracts Hoverflies and Lacewings and more, which prey on the Aphids and Spider mites that attack Great Northern Bean
  • ❧Great Northern Bean fixes nitrogen in the soil that African Marigold feeds on
  • ❧African Marigold suppresses pests that trouble Great Northern Bean

How to grow Great Northern Bean

1. Sow1 weeks from frost
2. Germinates8 days
3. Space10 cm apart
4. GrowFull sun
5. Harvest~90 days

Water: Medium · Height: 50 cm · Soil: Well-draining, fertile