French bean is one of the highly consumed and appreciated vegetables in our market, sold all the year round, since it is perfectly adapted to greenhouse culture.

French beans, kidney beans or string beans, are cultivated for their dried seeds or their fruits and their physiologically unripe seeds.

French beans are free of fat, cholesterol and sodium and low in calories. When they are consumed tender, before the seeds are completely developed, they are poor in proteins, whereas when they are mature they are rich in proteins. French beans, with or without pod, must be cooked before their consumption, in order to destroy the harmful lectins.

French bean is one of the highly consumed and appreciated vegetables in our market, sold all the year round, since it is perfectly adapted to greenhouse culture.

French beans, kidney beans or string beans, Phaseolus vulgaris (Leguminosae), are cultivated for their dried seeds or their fruits and their physiologically unripe seeds. In Spain, when they are consumed dried, they are called kidney beans or string beans; they are called " green beans" when they are consumed unripe.

It has several applications, since once cooked is eaten in salads, sautéed as a vegetable dish; with French dressing it makes a refreshing and delicious meal. In any case, French beans are the ideal garnish for meat and fish dishes.

The fruit is a coloured vegetable, of variable shape and size, with 4-6 seeds inside. They are green-coloured, yellow mottled with brown or red on green, etc. although the most demanded by the consumer are the green and the yellow ones, both the cylindrical as the flat shape.

Among the existing varieties there are two well-differentiated: the ones with a wide and flat pod, and the ones with slender pods, slightly flat or cylindrical.
French beans contain some seeds; the lesser the seeds are marked on the pod, the greater the quality of the fruit.

French beans are nutritionally important for their high content in proteins and carbohydrates.

They also contain vitamin A, B and C; phosphorus, silica and calcium; carbon chlorophyll, carbohydrates, trace elements (nickel, copper, cobalt).

The energetic value does not exceed 18 calories for each 100 grams of fruit, offering, from an nourishing point of view, a significant nutritious value, in regard to the mineral elements that it contains.

It is one of the most appreciated and consumed vegetables in the markets, being of great economic and commercial importance in those countries with suitable climate.

The plant (Phaseolus vulgaris) is classified in two perfectly delimited groups: " dwarf" and "pole’. The first one comprises the species of straight and erect stems, that bears its fruit without the need of supports; the plants of the second group have creeping stems, that need a support to grow because they have little resistance.

It is an annual plant, whose vegetative cycle is quite fast. The root system is very light and slightly deep and it is composed of a main root and a large number of secondary roots with a high degree of ramification.

The main stem is herbaceous. In dwarf varieties, it has an erect habit and it measures approximately 30 to 40 centimetres high, whereas the pole beans reach 2 to 3 meters high, being voluble and dextrorse (it grows upwards around a plant support in an anticlockwise direction).

The simple leaf, lanceolate and acuminate, has a variable size according to the variety. The flower is of several colours, unique for each variety, although in the most important varieties the flowers are white. They gather in clusters of 4 or 8, and the peduncles arise from the axils of the leaves or the tips of some stems.

The fruit is a coloured vegetable, of variable shape and size, with 4-6 seeds inside. They are green-coloured, yellow mottled with brown or red on green, etc. The pods are cylindrical or flat, with a slender or horseshoe shape. The size ranges from 15 to 50 centimetres long and 0.5 to 4 cm wide. In advanced stages, the walls of the pod are reinforced by fibrous tissues.

The germination capacity of the seed is of 2 or 3 years, depending on the good conditions of preservation; if they are stored in a humid and warm place, during the second year the percentage of germination is already scarce and in some cases null. There are usually 3 5 seeds in each gram. The emergence is epigeal, that is to say, the germinated seed grows on the surface of the land.

It is a plant of humid environmental climate and mild temperature; the larger production is obtained in warm climate; the best quality is obtained when the temperatures have few extreme oscillations.

The optimal pollination of the flowers is obtained at temperatures between 15º and 25ºC. The French bean is a plant that needs enough environmental moisture surrounding it; the most appropriate percentage is between 60 and 75%; it is very important to keep quite a constant percentage of moisture, without extreme oscillations.