GardenPole Bean variety
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean
✓ In your garden
Kentucky Wonder is a snap bean (pole), ready in about 68 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 give it a tall trellis or poles to climb.
“A snap bean you eat pod and all, picked young and tender.”
Growing basics — shared by every pole bean
Kentucky Wonder 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 Kentucky Wonder 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 Kentucky Wonder 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 early Jul, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- late Apr – early May
- Growing
- early May – early Jul
- Picking
- early Jul until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Kentucky Wonder — 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 Kentucky Wonder — 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 pole bean: put up the trellis or poles at planting. It climbs 6–8 feet and crops over a long season.
Kentucky Wonder pole bean at a glance
| Type | Snap |
|---|---|
| Grows as | Tall vine (indeterminate) |
| Days to ripe | 68 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.
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 Kentucky Wonder
How long does Kentucky Wonder take to grow?
About 68 days from sowing to the first tender pods.
Is Kentucky Wonder 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 Kentucky Wonder indoors?
Better not — beans resent transplanting. Sow the seed straight in warm soil after your last frost.
Browse more pole bean varieties →