Growing Beans in the Garden

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is an annual bushy or climbing plant. It belongs to the legume family. Its original homeland is Central and South America. Spanish explorers brought it to Europe in the 15th century from their voyages of discovery.

In climbing varieties, the stem does not branch and has unlimited growth. Bush varieties of beans branch and can reach heights of up to 1 meter. The leaves are trifoliate, composed of individual heart-shaped leaflets. The flowers are five-petaled, with specific color, size and shape depending on the variety. The fruit consists of pods containing seeds known as beans.

How to Choose Bean Seeds

When selecting seeds, you need to know what purpose they will serve. Yes, common beans can be grown for many different reasons. Besides being a storehouse of important vitamins and minerals such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iodine, they serve decorative and shading functions in many gardens. If you're growing beans for harvesting the fruit, consider whether you'll be using dried beans or young bean pods.

Beans grown for dry seeds are harvested when the pods are completely dry, while pods are picked at the so-called milk-ripe stage. The pods of these "vegetable" varieties are thinner, more delicate and brittle. They don't have a tough inner membrane or strong edge fibers. In the kitchen, they're used for direct consumption, freezing or pickling in brine. "Pulse" varieties have larger and wider pods. For beans grown to beautify the garden, important factors include the length of their stems and distinctive flower colors.

These are almost always one of the climbing bean varieties, whose length can reach up to 5 meters. While these varieties enter production somewhat later, you can regularly harvest young pods until autumn. A bed of bush beans isn't as decorative, but has the advantage of faster production onset, more abundant fruit that ripens in a shorter time period, making them less susceptible to various diseases and pests.

Types of Beans

• For example, there's the bush bean Maxi (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Maxi). This bean variety has large round pods.

• Another representative is the bush bean Divara (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Divara). This is a highly productive variety with long pods suitable for deep freezing.

• The bush bean variety Primavera (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Primavera) is a highly productive variety with rich green pods.

• The disease-resistant bush variety Negra (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Negra) blooms with purple flowers. The pods are black in color. The plant forms an upright, sturdy bush.

• Golden-yellow pods stand out from the abundant foliage of the bush variety Golden Teepee (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Golden Teepee). They are easy to harvest and are often referred to as a "lucky variety".

• The variety Golddukat (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Golddukat) also has golden-yellow pods. The pods are stringless, making them suitable for freezing.

• The variety Neckargold (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Neckargold) has the same pod color. However, this is a climbing variety. It has long, full, fleshy green pods without strings, making it suitable for freezing.

• The variety Neckarkönigin (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Neckarkönigin) has long, full, fleshy, green pods. Thanks to breeding, it has no strings and is suitable for freezing.

• A representative of ornamental varieties is scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus L., Rotblühende) with robust growth and abundant scarlet flowers. It is suitable for covering fences.

• An alternative with white flowers, white sprouts and delicious white pods is broad bean (Vicia faba L., Dreifach weiße). A combination of both colors of these ornamental beans looks very attractive on a fence.

Growing Beans

Common beans are relatively undemanding plants to grow. Sufficient warm and sunny days with temperatures around 22 °C contribute to their successful growth. Light to medium-heavy soil with neutral pH in the range of 6 - 7 is suitable. The soil must not dry out during germination and pod setting. The ideal location is a place with morning sun or partial shade. Sow seeds directly in the bed from May to June. Always wait until there is no risk of frost.

Bush beans are sown at a distance of 30 cm - 50 cm, with individual rows spaced approximately 40 cm apart. Climbing beans are planted at a spacing of approximately 80 cm x 70 cm. Place 3 - 6 seeds in each hole. To allow the beans to climb, don't forget to insert a sufficiently long and sturdy stake or other support. Ornamental beans are planted the same way as climbing beans, but instead of in a vegetable bed, plant them in a location you want to shield from curious passersby. To help beans thrive, you can fertilize them. Particularly suitable are NPK fertilizers with a low nitrogen ratio.

Bean diseases and pests

Common beans are not particularly susceptible plants, but it can still happen that especially climbing varieties of beans may be attacked by pests or diseases. The most commonly occurring are anthracnose, bean seed fly, and bean weevil. You're certainly interested in how individual diseases or pests manifest and how to effectively combat them.

• Anthracnose manifests in the first phase as brown spots on young pods and in the second phase as yellow-brown or red-brown spots on the seeds. This fungal disease is controlled by conscientious cleanup of harvested plant residues and timely disposal of unharvested plants before winter arrives.

• Bean seed fly in the first phase is a larva feeding on cotyledons still in the soil, destroying the plant's growing tip, and in the second phase, the insect emerges from the larva after 2 - 4 weeks. This pest can be prevented by sowing treated seeds only in warm weather and changing the location (don't sow beans in the same place as last season). For emerged insects, use a chemical spray such as Karate Zeon designed for sucking and chewing insects.

• Bean weevil is a beetle that lays eggs on pods, and its larvae bore into the seeds where they pupate, and after hatching, they devour stored seeds. Prevention against this beetle attack again includes annual crop rotation, cleaning up harvested plant residues, and storing harvested beans in a freezer where at -18°C the weevil will reliably die. If you find aphids or spider mites on bean plants, treat them with a chemical preparation designed for sucking and chewing insects.

How to Use Beans in the Kitchen

Before cooking, soak dried bean pods overnight in water and cook them until soft the next day. If you want green bean pods to remain slightly crisp, blanch them in hot salted water before cooking and rinse them with cold water. When introducing beans into your diet, you may experience bloating, but with regular consumption, your body will start producing an enzyme that prevents bloating. The decoction from dried green pods without seeds is used as a supportive remedy in treating milder forms of diabetes. Agglutinins have diuretic effects.

Consuming beans helps lower blood pressure and maintains optimal blood sugar levels. Beans are a significant source of quality plant-based proteins, with high content of amino acids, phytosterols, flavonoids and glycosides, which help improve mood.

Don't be afraid of beans – they'll enrich both your diet and your garden!