Beans are the backbone of the self-sufficient garden: easy to grow, productive and soil-improving on top. The only catch is that the word bean covers quite different plants. Treat the bush bean and the broad bean the same, and you sow at the wrong time and wonder why.
So let us sort the family by its five most important types. After that you know which bean to sow when, which one needs a support, and why you must not nibble any of them raw.
Five beans, five roles
- Bush bean
Low, quick, no support. Phaseolus vulgaris in its bush form gives green or yellow pods for a side dish. Ideal for successional sowing through summer. See the profile: bush bean.
- Pole bean
The same species, but climbing. On a pole or wigwam it reaches two to three metres and crops most heavily over weeks. See the profile: pole bean.
- Runner bean
The scarlet runner (Phaseolus coccineus) with its bright red flowers is ornament and harvest in one, tolerates cooler spots and forms large seeds. See the profile: runner bean.
- Broad bean
The broad or field bean (Vicia faba) is botanically a different genus, cold-hardy and the earliest bean of the year. See the profile: broad bean.
- Lima bean
The lima or butter bean (Phaseolus lunatus) loves warmth and gives large, flat seeds that mostly reach the kitchen dried. See the profile: lima bean.
Harvest green or dry as a shell bean
With most beans you have the choice. Pick the pods young and tender and you have green beans for the pot and pan. Let them ripen and dry and you gain storable shell beans that you soak and cook all year round.
Both are the same magic: a handful of seeds that multiplies. The shell bean is the self-sufficiency queen here, because dried it keeps for months and delivers plenty of protein.
How to grow beans
Sow at the right time
Green bush, pole, runner and lima beans are frost-sensitive and want warm soil, so sow after the last frosts (CW 19 to 26). Only the broad bean you sow early, from CW 8 to 12, into cool soil.
Do not start too wet
Bean seed likes to rot when it lies cold and wet. Sow into a dried-out, warm bed and only water properly after germination. An old gardener's saying goes: sow beans into the dry.
Put up supports early
Pole and runner beans need a frame from the start. A wigwam of poles or a sturdy net is enough. The shoots twine upward on their own.
Feed hardly at all
Beans supply themselves with nitrogen through root-nodule bacteria. Too much fertiliser only drives the foliage. A little compost at the start is plenty.
Harvest regularly
The more often you pick green pods, the more the plant forms. If you want shell beans, by contrast, let the pods ripen fully and dry.
The broad bean is the odd one out: it comes from a different genus, is sown in early spring and carries its pods upright on a sturdy stem. In return it is the first in early summer, when other beans are only just germinating.
Harvesting, drying and storing dry beans
If you want no green pods but storable dry beans, you let the pods ripen fully on the plant. This is the master discipline for the self-sufficient garden: sow once, a whole shelf of protein for the winter.
Let them ripen
Leave the pods on the plant until they are parchment-dry and the beans rattle when shaken. That is usually in late summer to autumn. Pull the whole plant in dry weather.
Dry them further
Hang the plants upside down in an airy, dry spot, not in blazing sun. After one to two weeks the beans are so hard that no fingernail leaves a dent.
Shell and clean
Break open the dry pods and pick out the beans. Blow away or pick off any remaining pod and chaff. Only fully dry beans go into store.
Outsmart the bean weevil
Put the dry beans in the freezer for two to three days. That kills the eggs and larvae of the bean weevil, which would otherwise keep eating in the store. After that, store dry and airtight in a jar.
Set seed aside
Pick the finest beans of an open-pollinated variety and keep them separately. That way you raise a free crop next year and preserve old heirloom varieties along the way.
Dried and airtight, dry beans keep easily for one to two years. Before cooking, soak them overnight, which shortens the cooking time and makes them easier to digest. You still cook them thoroughly, because raw dry beans too contain the toxic phasin.
Why raw beans belong on the stove
As healthy as cooked beans are, they are just as hard on you raw. The reason is a natural defence toxin of the plant.
No bean raw. Green or shell, each one goes into the pot first, then onto the plate.
The golden rule of beans
A second peculiarity concerns only the broad bean: people with the hereditary condition favism (an enzyme deficiency) must not eat it, because it can trigger a dangerous breakdown of red blood cells. Anyone without it enjoys it without worry once cooked.
Frequently asked questions
Why can I not eat beans raw?
Because of the toxin phasin in raw green and shell beans. It clumps red blood cells. Ten to fifteen minutes of hard boiling breaks it down, after which the beans are safe and easy to digest.
Which way do pole beans twine?
Always anti-clockwise, no matter how you set them up. Help young shoots onto the pole once, then they climb on by themselves. Do not confuse them with the runner bean, which climbs the same way.
When do I sow the broad bean?
Very early, from CW 8 to 12, as soon as the soil is workable. It germinates in the cool and grows a step ahead of the black bean aphid. All other beans go into the bed only after the last frosts.
Do I have to feed beans?
Hardly. Through root-nodule bacteria they fix nitrogen from the air and supply themselves. They even leave the soil richer in nitrogen than they found it. That makes them an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders.
