GardenBush Bean variety
Nickel Bush Bean
✓ In your garden
Nickel is a filet bean (bush), ready in about 54 days. Pick the pods young and tender and eat them whole — steamed, sautéed, or raw. Beans are easy warm-season crops — sow the seed straight in the ground after frost (they hate being transplanted), and no support needed — it holds itself up.
“A snap bean you eat pod and all, picked young and tender.”
Growing basics — shared by every bush bean
Nickel grows like any other bush bean. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Bush Bean page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 2–4 in
- Row spacing
- 24–36 in
- Planting depth
- 1 in
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Water
- Moderate
What is Nickel good for?
- Fresh eating (pods)Steamed, sautéed, or raw — pick young. Great
- Freezing / canningBlanch and freeze the surplus. Great
- Dried beansGrown for tender pods, not dry seed. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
—
Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Nickel in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around mid Jun, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- late Apr – early May
- Growing
- early May – mid Jun
- Picking
- mid Jun – early Jul
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Nickel — and what to keep away
-
Onions & garlicTraditional
The most consistent 'no' in companion planting. Unproven, unanimous.
The badge is the honesty. Trialed = a published field trial · Practical = a real mechanism · Traditional = companion-chart lore. These pairings hold for every bush bean.
Pairings compiled from West Virginia University Extension.
Growing Nickel — the things that trip people up
- Pick the pods young, before the seeds bulge them, and pick every couple of days — the more you pick, the more the plant makes.
- A bush bean: it stays knee-high and sets its crop over a couple of weeks — sow a second batch a few weeks later for a longer harvest.
Nickel bush bean at a glance
| Type | Filet |
|---|---|
| Grows as | Bush (determinate) |
| Days to ripe | 54 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Nickel
How long does Nickel take to grow?
About 54 days from sowing to the first tender pods.
Is Nickel a bush or pole bean?
A bush bean — it’s self-supporting and sets its crop in a shorter window.
Can I start Nickel indoors?
Better not — beans resent transplanting. Sow the seed straight in warm soil after your last frost.
Browse more bush bean varieties →