Will my pole beans cross-pollinate with nearby soybeans?

Question:

Will my pole beans cross-pollinate with nearby soybeans?

Answer:

Beans produce perfect and self-fertile flowers so they readily and easily pollinate themselves. Only beans in the same species are capable of cross-pollinating. So, pole beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) can cross with other varieties of bean in the same species but they cannot cross-pollinate with soybean (Glycine max) which is in a different genus.

If you do have two varieties of bean in the same genus that you are worried about cross-pollinating because you plan to save the seed for planting next year, planting the different varieties 10 feet apart is all that is needed to prevent nearly all potential for cross-pollination.

Learn more in this article: Growing Green Beans