Green bean – season and types

Green bean is a familiar bean which is used widely from the west to the east. Let’s find down some details about this bean.

Terminology for green bean and description

Green bean is a species of genus Phaseolus vulgaris (or common bean) together with some familiar beans as pinto bean, black bean, kidney bean…in Fabaceae family. It’s also known as string bean or snap bean.

This species is an annual shrub or vine plant with white or purple color flowers. The pod could have color from green to purple, red or streaked, and could be 18-20 cm long with kidney-shaped seeds inside. Immature green bean pod is known with fleshiness, flavor and sweetness. The mature pod will be more strung, and only the ripen seeds will be used then.

Cultivated and season

Green bean was first domesticated in America and then was popular grown around the world till now. The green bean is suitable to many types of soil, it could be drought-tolerant, and be grown well in warm climate of tropical or subtropical areas. Some types could stand the cool climate but they’re mostly could not be tolerant the cold climate.

The green bean could self-pollinate to 95%, flower after 35-40 days planted. The young pod could be harvest after 10-13 days after flowering.

There are bush and pole of green beans with a little different time of mature and harvest.

• The bush green beans: would grow up to 50-60 cm height with support unneeded. Young pods could be harvested after 50-60 days planted. They will ripe after 50-65 days planted.
• The pole green beans: are vine plants and need to be supported by trellises or cages to grow. Young pods of pole beans could be harvested after 60-70 days planted. They will ripe after 60-80 days planted.

Both bush and pole beans will be grown well if planted in warm climate, some types could even stand the cool weather. Their growing and harvesting time will be different depend on the area and climate.

Types of green bean

There are more than 130 varieties of green bean that are known. We could number some popular types:

• For bush bean, some types could be listed is Bountiful, Red Swan (with dusty rose purple pod color, could be called a beautiful bean), Maxibel (popular in Europe), Blue Lake 274, Roma II, Dragon Tongue (an impressed bean with purple streak pod color and amazing flavor)….
• For pole bean, there are popular types as Kentucky Blue, Fortex, Blue Lake, and specially Witsa mainly grown in South Africa.