Phaseolus vulgaris var. nanus
Bush bean
Common names: Green bean, French bean, Snap bean
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 8 cm, rows 40 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- May–Jul
- Harvest
- Jul–Sep
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 2 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Rasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The bush bean grows compactly without a trellis and delivers plenty of tender pods from July onwards. As a legume it gathers nitrogen through root nodule bacteria and leaves the bed better than it found it. Raw beans are inedible because of phasin; only cooking makes them digestible.
Care instructions
Sow the seeds only from mid-May (week 20), once night frosts are over, in clusters of five about 3 cm deep. Hill the young plants up slightly so they stand firm. Water regularly at the base, above all during flowering, and pick the pods young and continuously; that keeps new ones coming.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMay–Jul
HarvestJul–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 10 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 5 to 10 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 3 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, humus-rich, well-drained
The dwarf French bean likes loose, humus-rich, well-drained soil; sandy loam to medium-heavy is ideal. Aeration and drainage matter more than a high nutrient content; it tolerates heavy, compacted or waterlogged soils poorly, and you are better off avoiding freshly fertilised or nitrogen-rich ground. Before sowing, wait for a soil temperature of at least 10 °C.
Through their nodule bacteria, legumes fix nitrogen and are an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders. They themselves need a break of about 4 years in the same place.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
The dwarf French bean needs hardly any feeding: as a legume, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen itself through nodule bacteria on its roots, so a dose of nitrogen is unnecessary and even harmful. In spring, before sowing, work in a little mature compost shallowly. This mainly improves the soil structure. On very lean soils you can work in a little horn shavings shallowly as early as the autumn of the previous year. Do not feed further during growth.
Overwintering
The dwarf French bean is annual and dies at the end of the season. You do not need to overwinter anything; after harvest, simply compost the dead plants. If you want to save seed, leave a few pods on the plant until they are completely brown and dry, shell out the seeds and dry them for a further one to two weeks before storing them cool, dry and dark; sow afresh only after the Ice Saints in mid-May, when the soil is at least 12 °C.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate dwarf French beans exclusively by direct sowing outdoors. Sow from mid-May, when the Ice Saints are over and the soil has reached at least 10 to 12 °C (ideally 15 °C and more). Poke the seeds in 2 to 3 cm deep, leave 5 to 10 cm between plants within the row and allow 40 to 50 cm between rows. Several successive sowings every two to three weeks until the end of June extend the harvest. Being self-pollinating, the dwarf French bean is especially easy for saving your own seed: with open-pollinated varieties, leave a few healthy pods to ripen and dry completely on the plant, until they are brown and the seeds rattle when shaken. After shelling, leave the seeds to dry for a few more weeks and store them cool, dry and dark; the seed then stays viable for several years. With hybrid (F1) varieties, saving seed is not worthwhile, because the offspring do not come true.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageRadishKalebroccolicauliflowerBrussels sprout and 38 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example DillParsleyCorianderCarawayparsley rootparsnip and 16 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example ButternutHokkaidoSpaghetti squashMexican minich cucumberInca cucumberBitter melon and 7 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example ChivesWild daffodilSnowdropornamental garlicAgapanthus lilyWild garlic
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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Varieties
6 varieties‘Berggold’
You’ll find a yellow wax bean with bright golden, meaty pods that stay buttery tender without strings.
‘Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco’
The Italian ‚Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco’ bean has distinctive cream-colored pods that are flame-red, hence the name 'Fire Tongue'.
‘Marona’
A modern, disease resistant filet bean that you can also grow well in damper situations.
‘Maxi’
A productive, robust filet bean with long, straight green pods that hang above the foliage and are therefore comfortable to harvest.
‘Purple Teepee’
This variety carries deep purple pods that stand well above the foliage, which makes them easy to spot when picking.
‘Saxa’
An open-pollinated classic that has stood in German gardens for almost a century.
Notes from real gardens
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