Grow Your Own French Beans

Lesson 5: Harvesting French Beans

Quench Their Thirst
French beans are ready for harvesting between 8 and 12 weeks after sowing. Keeping the crop well-watered at this time – and on into late summer – is vital. French beans suffer if they're allowed to become too thirsty. If you're growing a dwarf variety, don't forget that it's still not too late to sow a few more seeds, to ensure the harvest continues into early autumn.

Get Picking
There are two vital rules about harvesting French beans: pick young and pick often. Young French bean pods are far tastier than mature pods, which are stringy and dull in flavour. The pods you pick should be smooth in appearance and ought to snap easily when you bend them. If you can see bean-shapes bulging along the pods, they are past their best. The most effective way to encourage more young pods to form is to get out there and pick frequently. This is especially important if you're growing climbing varieties. Frequent picking accelerates the plant's natural tendency to produce pods over a long period. Don't pull too hard on the plant when you're harvesting. You may find it easier to use a pair of scissors.

Blight Fright
Apart from slugs and aphids (see Lessons 3 and 4), the most likely problem you'll encounter is halo blight. This bacterial condition emerges after cold, wet periods and produces brown spots surrounded by yellow "halos" on the plant's leaves. The spots become water-soaked and go on to infect the pods, too. Older gardening books recommend spraying infected plants with fungicide but many of today's experts disagree. The sprays are often ineffective and may even encourage the bacteria to become resistant. A safer – not to say more organic – course of action is to cut your losses and destroy infected plants immediately. Prevention is better than cure. Always use top-quality seeds, practise good garden hygiene and avoid overcrowding.

Pic: GAP Photos/Rob Whitworth