Beans: Green for Salads, Dried for Winter
1 min read By Екипът на Seeds
Dwarf and climbing bean varieties, when to sow and how to have a harvest all summer.
Sowing
Beans are sensitive to cold: sow directly when the soil is above 12 °C — usually from early May. Do not soak the seeds for long — in cold soil a swollen seed rots.
- Depth: 3–4 cm.
- Dwarf (bush) beans: 10 cm apart in the row, 40 cm between rows.
- Climbing beans: 4–5 seeds around each pole.
Care
Beans fix their own nitrogen through the nodule bacteria on their roots, so they do not need nitrogen fertiliser. Water during flowering — drought at that stage causes the flowers to drop.
Green beans
Pick the pods young, before the seeds form and the pod becomes stringy. Regular picking keeps the plants productive.
Dried beans
For dried beans, leave the pods to dry on the plant. Shell them, dry them for another week and store in a jar in a dry place.
Photo: Rob Bertholf, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
