PlantSowGrow
How to grow French Bean (Climbing Cobra)
Phaseolus vulgaris
🥕 Vegetable
🌱 Grown each year
A heavy-cropping climbing bean with long, round, stringless pods and pretty violet flowers.
At a glance: Sow late April to late May, harvest from early July.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing French Bean (Climbing Cobra): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water regularly in dry weather
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 20 cm up canes
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A general feed before sowing or planting
- Harvest
- About 70 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Late April – late May · 2 weeks after the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in drills where they are to grow.
- 7–14 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Early May – mid May
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 7–14 days. If sown outdoors, thin to 20 cm up canes apart when big enough to handle.
- 7–21 days after “Plant Out” · Mid May – late May
Add Support
Train up a wigwam or row of 2 m canes; tie in young stems to start them off.
- 56–77 days after “Check Germination” · Early July – late July
Start Harvesting
Pick pods at 15 cm, every couple of days.
- 60–90 days after “Start Harvesting” · Late August – late September
Finish and Clear
Clear the remains to the compost heap once cropping ends.
