Introduction: French beans are the delicious vegetable which can be grown easily in both indoors and outdoors. In this blog you can learn how to grow french beans in pots and the tips for growing french beans. Growing French beans in India is easy as these require access to sunlight and can be grown in pots or containers as they don’t require much space. You can grow beans indoors year round by following the tips carefully. We all know that french beans can be growin in smaller sapces like in apartment balcony or terrace.
You can apply this article infromation for:
- Growing french beans in the balcony, growing french beans on the terrace, growing dwarf beans in pots, growing french beans in the backyard, growing french beans in kitchen garden, and growing french beans on raised beds.
A guide for growing french beans in pots or containers
French beans can be grown as bushes or vines based on the variety you chose to plant. You can grow the french beans in larger pots as they need little space to spread out and grow. This can be done if you don’t have a large gardening space. You can also grow these in terrace as they require plenty of sunlight. Growing french beans in pots or containers allows you to start the process earlier than intended and you can also avail the facility to move the pot as per the place which it gets fit.
Best season to plant french beans
The best growing season to plant french beans is at early spring, but make sure that you keep the pots indoor during nights.
Different varieties of french beans
There are four varieties of french beans which are classified and divided based on the size. These include-
- Kenyan Bean AGM: This is a dwarf bean which are tender and easy to grow. This type bean produces slender and stringless pods.
- Algarve AGM: The pods of these bean are flat, straight and is a climbing one. The pods are mid-green inn color which are totally stringless.
- Golden Gate Bean: These beans have an attractive golden yellow color and is a climbing bean. This type of variety produces heavy crop over a prolonged season.
- PurpleTeepee Bean: This is a dwarf bean variety and the pods are in attractive purple color. The unique things is that they turn green color when they are cooked.
Steps involved in growing french beans in pots
These are the following steps which you need to follow for growing french beans in pots or containers.
Choosing a pot or a container for growing french beans
You need tochoose a container or a pot which should be deep enough to grow the french beans. This also depends on the variety of french bean you choose to grow. For example, to grow pole beansyou need to maintain a depth of about 8-9 inches whereas dwarf or bush bean need about 6-7 inches. Make sure that the pot has good drainage holes to avoid waterlogging and other problems. Maintain a space of 12 inches to plant 9 bean seeds.
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How to sow french beans seeds in pots
French beans requires sunny area and well-drained soils. The soil should be mixed with well-rotten manure before sowing the bean seeds. You need to keep in mind that climbing french beans crop continuously till September but the dwarf french beans crop only for a few weeks where you cannot make an additional sowing later for these.
Sowing french beans in indoors
If you want an early crop of french beans you can start sowing them in indoors during April to early May. But make sure that you use small pots where sow only one seed per pot with 5cm or 2 inches depth. After the plant gets acclimatised then these young plants can be planted outside in larger pots at the end of May or early days of June. Ensure that the plant should not be under the risk of frost.
Sowing french beans in outdoors
This can be done during warm temperatures especially in May but you need to protect the sown seeds by using fleece during nights. You can also use small pots same like in indoors and can transfer to the larger pods after reaching 8cm height. You can sow the seeds directly when the soil temperatures are warm enough.
How to grow dwarf french beans
For any type of the french beans you need to give protection during the winter season. You can create warm temperatures by covering the plants with fleece or newspaper to attain the required warm temperature. These dwarf french beans are grown about 45cm in height and are grown with the support of neighbouring plants. Dwarf french beans can be grown the best in smaller blocks. The space in between the plants should be 15cm apart.
Watering french bean plants growing in pots
Watering should be done in an adequate manner during the flowering stage for french beans. Care should be taken that you need to supply adequate water especially during the dry weather conditions. You can also conserve the soil moisture by covering the surface of the soil with well rotten manure or with mushroom compost.
How to grow climbing french beans
For growing climbing french beans you need to set up a support for the plants to climb up. Wigwams are the best method for growing climbing french beans. You can also prepare wigwams by yourself with the help of tall canes. Use five canes of 6 ft. height and place them in the pot with a spacing of 15cm apart in between the cane sticks. Now tie the tops of canes together to form a wigwam. Then plant one climbing french bean plant at the base of each cane, now tie the shoots of the plant to the cane loosely.
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Common problems while the growing french beans
You commonly face few problems while growing french beans in pots especially by slugs and snails, birds, black bean aphids. These are the remedies and the symptoms which you can follow to control the problems.
- Slugs and snails feed on the young plants or seedlings where you can find the slime layer on the soil around the crop and on the leaves. This can be controlled by using beer traps or sawdust or eggshell barriers or by using copper tape and other bio-controls.
- Birds cause the major array of problems especially the pigeons. These create problems by eating the seedlings or buds or leaves and also damages the flowers and vegetables. This can be minimised by covering the pods with nets or flees.
- Black bean aphid creates a major problem by sucking the plant sap which will disfigure the plants and causes damage to leaves and stems especially for the newly growing ones. This can be controlled by pinching off the infected tips or by squashing the aphids population by careful observation time to time.
Harvesting the french beans grown in pots
You can start picking the pods with the help of a sharp blade or knife after they reach 10cm long which is attained within 45-65 days of planting. It is better to harvest the french beans when they are medium sized with firm pods. By picking the pods regularly you can grow or crop the climbing french beans for longer durations. But for dwarf french bean plants they give crop for several weeks and later they stop giving the pods.
Gardening tips for growing french beans in pots
These are the tips which you need to follow for getting better yield of french bean crop when you grow in pots.
- Make sure that you fill the pot with god quality of soil, compost, vermiculite for french bean planting.
- Add little amount of vegetable fertilizer before planting french bean crop in the pot.
- For wine varieties you can sow 2-3 seeds in the same hole.
- The soil should be maintained moist while germination period and hence it is better to water the seedlings regularly.
- Care should be taken that the french bean seedlings should sprout within 5-8 days. ‘
- After observing the sprouts from the french bean seedlings spread the mulch or mushroom compost on the top of the soil to keep the soil under moisture conditions.
- Even though you plant the seedlings indoor make sure that your potted beans should receive the sunlight in an adequate manner. Hence, you can move your pot to sunny areas as the plant loves receiving more sunlight.
- Fertilize the soil in the pot once in a month to get the healthy pods.
- French bean plants loves water therefore you need to water the plants regularly and maintain the soil under moisture conditions.
- Careful observation of pests should be done and you can also spray the plants regularly with neem oil which avoid the harmful effects of pests.
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