Castandel - Dwarf French Bean

Phaseolus vulgaris 

This is a beautiful dwarf French bean. We first grew it as part of the 2024 Gaia Great bean trial and found that produce compact, high yielding plants that grow stringless, straight pods with good disease resistance.

When to sow: April - May indoor, May – June direct

Requirements: nutrient-rich soil, regular watering, and a lot of sun.

When to harvest for food: July - Sep when pods are fresh and green.

When to harvest for seed: July - Oct. When beans are fully mature and pods turn brown. In southern England, typically July/later summer.

Need to isolate: No 

Seed Grown: Omved Gardens 

Seed harvested: 2023

Saving Seed From Borlotti (Frence beans). Isolation: French beans are self pollinating and rarely cross pollinate though it is good practice to allow 3m between different varieties. Processing Seed: Allow beans to fully ripen on the plant, when they begin to turn brown and papery, pick whole pods and bring them inside to dry fully. Once completely dry, shell the beans from their papery pods. 

How to send seed back: Please label all seed with variety, type, date and your contact, if you didn't get a chance to fill out our online data collection form, you can also send us a few lines about how it grew for you/flavour etc. Please aim to send back around 1/3 cup of dried seed or more so that we can continue to share with network members. Send to: Omved Gardens, 1 Townsend Yard, N6 5JF.