Beans In Colorado 
9 
Time to Plant. —Beans are a hot weather crop. Seed is injuriously 
affected if it is planted in cold soil. Germination will not take place 
while the soil is cold, and if the soil happens to be wet enough, rot¬ 
ting may take place before the soil warms up sufficiently to permit 
germination. 
Beans will not stand any frost. The very slightest degree of 
frost is apt to kill them entirely. On account of these reasons, beans 
should not be planted until the soil is thoroughly warmed up. In 
most Colorado sections this will be the last week in May or early in 
June. Successful plantings have been made as late as the first week 
in July, but the grower is tempting fate too much to make a practice 
of such planting, as frosts are likely to occur as early as the 25th of 
August. 
While pinto beans and some of the teparies and a few of the 
Mexican and Indian varieties have been matured in 60 days or less, it 
normally takes about 90 days to mature a crop even for these short- 
season beans. In those seasons when frosts hold off until late in 
the fall, late planting will often make a crop, but frosts do not always 
hold off until late. 
Method of Planting. —If there is any considerable acreage of 
beans to be put in, a bean planter should be procured, or a corn planter 
with bean plates. In Colorado beans should always be planted in drills 
so that the bean planters or corn planter should be so arranged as to 
drill the seed one in a place. It is possible to make use of a grain 
drill by stopping up the proper number of holes, in fact, many beans 
are successfully planted with such an implement. The type of grain 
drill having a revolving cup feed is adapted for this kind of planting. 
Most of our grain drills have 7 or 8 inches between the drill 
holes. Stopping up three drill holes would therefore plant 28 inches 
apart, which is about right for irrigated planting. With a 7-inch 
drill, stopping up 5 holes, that is, leaving open the first and sixth drill, 
would plant 42 inches apart, which is about right for dry land. 
Some dry lands are strong enough to justify planting 36 inches 
apart. Stopping up four drill holes, leaving the first and fifth open, 
would plant 35 inches apart, which is about right. 
Under irrigated conditions the rows should be about 28 inches 
apart. On dry lands, they should be from about 3 to ^ l / 2 feet apart. 
Under very dry conditions it is sometimes advisable to plant 7 feet 
apart and cultivate all of the intervening space. For irrigated condi¬ 
tions the drill should be thick enough to make one plant every 4 to 6 
inches. This will require around 30 to 35 pounds per acre of seed for 
pinto beans. It will require a greater number of pounds for larger 
Reference £Le 
Agricultural Library 
