Dwarf French Beans

Dwarf French beans are excellent to grow on a garden or allotment as they don’t take up a lot of space and they don’t require too much attention. French Beans are a lot less productive than there relation to the runner bean. But you certainly will get a great crop from them.

Dwarf French Beans will not have the problem that runner beans have with many of the pods not setting. Dwarf French Beans will only grow to a height of around 50cm so they do not need a massive structure making like you would for runner beans and normal French beans.

French Beans can come in many colours not just green but yellow and even purple.

Here in this article we will explain how to grow Dwarf French Beans.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

When to Sow Dwarf French Beans

Here you can find the months that you can plant them in the garden.

**This is only a guide for the UK obviously it all depends on the weather**

Varieties of Dwarf French Bean

There are a few varieties of French bean available on the market to buy. These are some of our recommendations:-

• Annebel
• Delinel
• Golden Teepee
• Purple Teepee
• Kenyan Bean AGM

Choosing the best soil

When growing Dwarf French Beans you obviously need to plant them in the best position to get the best crops and prod cue from the plants. These need to be planted in a warm sunny spot where the soil is fertile and holds onto the moisture. You can improve the soil by adding in some well-rotted manure and compost a few months before.

How to sow Dwarf French Beans

Sowing these beans is easy we will go through all the things you need to do from sowing, planting and harvesting dwarf French beans.

When sowing the beans the best option is to sow them in pots first as they are extremely slow to grow giving them more chance of being attacked by slugs and snails. Either get a seed tray and distribute them on a layer of compost evenly then covered with another layer of compost or you can sow beans per plant pot (small pot will do)

Planting Dwarf French Beans

When your Beans have reached around 10cm tall they are ready to plant outside in the ground or in troughs. When planting them out in the ground leave around 20cm between each plant so that it makes it easier to weed them. Always save a few plants just in case any get eaten or do not take.

Either plant the French beans in single rows or double rows. Fasten netting behind the beans so that you can fasten them to it as they grow taller. The weight of the beans may topple the plants over and snap them and you would not want to lose all your produce.

Looking after your Plants

beans do not need much looking after. Make sure that the plants are kept weed-free when growing. If it is cold you can use fleece to cover the plants to protect them against frost.

When the plants are small and still developing they can get attacked by birds and slugs. Keep the plants protected from birds by either using netting or using pop bottles to cover them until they are bigger.

Mulch around the plants to keep the plants moist as this will help them grow and stop them drying out as fast.

Harvesting Dwarf French Beans

When harvesting Beans, it’s better to keep picking them often so that it encourages more harvesting. Pick the beans when they are large enough do not leave them on the plant too long as they will miss their peak tastiness.

How to store Dwarf French Beans

To store the beans you can freeze them and you can also dry out the pods. To dry out the pods you need to wait until the pods start to die back on the plant. Pick the pods and store them in a dry room. You can then shell the beans and store the beans in a Tupperware box that is airtight. Before you eat them though the beans will need to be soaked first.

Dwarf French Beans Pests and Diseases

As with any fruit an vegetables they attract pests and diseases and it’s always good to help avoid them. Here we tell you how to try and stop the issues.

Birds:- they love the Bean plants when they are small and in the ground. The pigeons will love to eat them down to the ground and you could end up losing all your crop. Either protect them with netting or use plastic bottles cut in half to cover them with until they are a lot bigger. You could even try making a scarecrow to keep the birds away.

Slugs and Snails – These will always be a problem with any type of plant that you grow. But if the slugs eat the tops off the plants this will stop them from growing to a decent height. Set up beer traps, egg shells or any other slug deterrent.

Purchase Dwarf French Beans

Do you want to try your green fingers at growing dwarf French Beans. Here you can purchase some through our Amazon link

Here you can find out more tips and advice for growing fruit and vegetables – click here