BEAN - COBRA

 Organic French Climbing  (Pole) Cobra Bean

    10 Seeds Pack    

 French beans are thought to have originated from Central and South America where they were grown as an indigenous crop for at least the past 5,000 years. Spanish and Portuguese explorers introduced the legume to Europe and Africa, and by the nineteenth century the slim pods became common in France as haricot verts.

French beans, botanically classified as Phaseolus vulgaris, are a tender, flavourful type of bean belonging to the Fabaceae family. Many different bean cultivars are generally categorized under French beans, and varieties can be of the pole or bush types, found in varying colours. French beans are also known as Filet beans, French Green Beans, Fine Beans and Haricots Verts, and are specifically bred for their pods rather than their seeds. 

French Bean Cobra has been awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit

French beans are small, slender, dramatic purple flowers, light green straight stingless pods about 7mm in diameter and have a cylindrical shape with tapered, pointed ends. The pods are semi-smooth and fleshy with a crisp, firm, earthy, sweet, tender consistency and vegetal flavour.  Underneath the surface, each pod contains several tiny seeds that are tightly encased in the centre, extending the length of the pod.

PLANTING & GROWING

Soaking needs to be done at least a few hours before planting, and preferably overnight. To prevent damping off when starting seeds indoors, it’s essential that you disinfect all of your plastic grow trays, seed cells, and seedling tray covers before you reuse them. 

French Climbing  (Pole) Cobra Bean can be grown against a trellis, up netting or up canes set 100cm (3ft) apart. They can be interplanted with peas or runner beans. They are an excellent variety to grow in cold greenhouse or polytunnel.

Also can be grown in pots. Choose pots at least 45cm (18in) in diameter and make sure there are plenty of drainage holes. Fill with a mixture of equal parts loam-based compost and loam-free compost. 

Seeds germinate best at 18 to 25°C  and prefer pH in the 6.0 - 6.8 range. As with all crop families, rotation is recommended. Beans and others in the Fabaceae family should be grown in the same area only once in three years . Beans capture nitrogen from the air, so make sure the soil contains the other essential ingredients, phosphorus and potassium.

Water the plants frequently especially as the seed pods are setting and swelling. Remove any leaves that might show signs of yellowing. 

Climbing beans require little effort to produce good yields of pods. Matures in 60 days.

Pick daily, early in the morning for the best flavour, they are best picked often and before you can see the bean seed shape inside.

Beans, peas and tomatoes are self-pollinating and do not need bees for fruit production. Their flowers have all the needed reproductive parts and can transfer and accept their own pollen for the development of their edible fruits. You may notice bees and other insects visiting their flowers, collecting nectar and spreading pollen as they fly between other flowering plants in the landscape.