French Bean Seeds

French beans are tough, heavy cropping climbers producing a delicious, tender, sweet-tasting harvest. They are easy to grow from seed, cropping within around 3 months from sowing. Sow French beans under glass in March for an early harvest or outdoors from April onwards. We recommend using fleece or clothe to warm the soil and provide frost protection for early crops. Pick young French bean pods regularly during the harvest stage to encourage your plants to invest their energy into baby beans and increase your crop. French beans can be classed as dwarf bushes (growing up to 45cm tall) and climbing varieties (reaching up 2 metres tall). Both prefer a rich, well drained soil in a sunny spot and are frost tender, so don’t sow too early. Provide a support structure for them to climb up - a frame of canes and strong netting is ideal, or the beans can be grown in wigwams of sticks or canes, where they become a decorative feature in the garden. French beans have been cultivated for around 7,000 years, first by Indian tribes in Peru and the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico. They were first brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the ‘New World’ in 1493.