Green beans: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
How do you sow green beans outdoors?
Wait until the risk of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up. Choose a sunny, sheltered spot with well-drained soil, remove weeds and add well-rotted compost if needed. Do not sow into cold, waterlogged soil: the seeds may rot. The right date depends on your local climate, rather than a fixed date in April or May.
Follow the spacing on the seed packet. As a guide, sow dwarf French beans about 5 cm deep and 15 cm apart. For climbing varieties, put up sturdy supports before sowing and sow one or two seeds at the base of each support; thin to the strongest seedling if needed. Cover with soil and water gently, then keep the soil slightly moist without saturating it. You can stagger dwarf bean sowings while there is enough warm weather left for the crop to mature.
How to care for this plant
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Weed
If weeds are competing with your young plants, remove them before they take over. Close to the plants, work by hand without disturbing the soil deeply to protect the roots. A weed-free row needs no action.
How do you harvest green beans?
Pick the pods while they are young and tender, before the seeds become prominent inside. Judge their size according to the variety, rather than a fixed length or date. Check among the leaves regularly. Hold the stem with one hand and detach the pod gently with the other, or cut its stalk with scissors, without pulling on the plant. Frequent picking encourages further pods, but the harvest period depends on the variety and weather.
Use the beans soon after picking and keep them in the fridge if needed, without relying on a fixed one-week shelf life. To freeze a surplus, wash and trim tender pods, cut them into pieces and blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes. Cool promptly in cold water, drain and pack in suitable freezer containers before freezing.
Here you are harvesting the whole pod as a vegetable: do not wait for it to dry as you would for dried beans. When blanching before freezing, start timing the 3 minutes once the water returns to the boil. Work in small batches so it returns to boiling quickly.
Green beans
- Type : Vegetables
- Subtype : Seed vegetables
- Botanical Family : Fabaceae (papilionaceae / legumes)
Characteristics
- Lifecycle : Annual
- Exposure : Full Sun
- Frost Hardiness : Frost Sensitive
- Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
- Mature height : 40 cm
Sowing & Planting
- Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
- Sowing Depth : 3 cm
- Plant Spacing : 8 cm
- Row Spacing : 40 cm
Maintenance
- Maintenance : Low
- Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
- Soil Type : Humus-rich
- Soil pH Preference : Neutral
- Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
- Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
- Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
- Pollination : Self-pollinating
- Propagation : Sowing