GardenPole Bean variety
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean Pole Bean
✓ In your garden
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean is a dry bean (pole), ready in about 85 days. Let the pods dry on the plant, then shell the beans for soups, chili, and storage. Beans are easy warm-season crops — sow the seed straight in the ground after frost (they hate being transplanted), and give it a tall trellis or poles to climb.
“A bean grown to shell and dry for the pantry.”
Growing basics — shared by every pole bean
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean grows like any other pole bean. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Pole Bean page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 4–8 in
- Row spacing
- 24–36 in
- Planting depth
- 1 in
- Soil pH
- 5.8–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean good for?
- Dried beansShell and store for soups and chili. Great
- Fresh shell beansShell young for a fresh side. Great
- Eaten as podsThe pods get tough — this one’s for the beans. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean is known for
Annie's Heirloom Seeds describes this as:
- keeps a long time after picking
That is the company selling the seed, describing its own product. True, and worth weighing as such.
—
Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean 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 Jul, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- late Apr – early May
- Growing
- early May – mid Jul
- Picking
- mid Jul until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean — and what to keep away
-
Cabbage familyTraditional
Chart canon says no. Nobody's proven why. Cheap to respect.
-
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 pole bean.
Pairings compiled from West Virginia University Extension.
Growing Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean — the things that trip people up
- Leave dry beans on the plant until the pods are papery and rattle, then shell and finish drying them indoors.
- A pole bean: put up the trellis or poles at planting. It climbs 6–8 feet and crops over a long season.
Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean pole bean at a glance
| Type | Dry |
|---|---|
| Grows as | Tall vine (indeterminate) |
| Days to ripe | 85 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green, Purple |
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.
Save it and the plant lights up — kept right here in your browser, no account needed. It's the first thing GardenTrack starts remembering for you.
Kept on this device. Want it safe if your browser clears or you switch phones? Back it up free — just your email, no password.
GardenTrack is in beta now — it'll remember every plant you add here and tell you what to do and when. One email, no spam.
Common questions about Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean
How long does Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean take to grow?
About 85 days from sowing to dry, mature pods.
Is Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean a bush or pole bean?
A pole bean — it climbs, so give it a trellis or poles, and it crops over a long season.
Can I start Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean indoors?
Better not — beans resent transplanting. Sow the seed straight in warm soil after your last frost.
Browse more pole bean varieties →