Green beans

Meet the green bean, the quiet producer of the winter bed. Sown in October, it comes up within days, climbs or bushes out over the next weeks, and starts putting out slim pods around the turn of the year.

Its character is tidy and generous, but with a short fuse for heat and salt. It wants to be sown once, in place, in a sweet, free-draining bed; it likes water at the roots, not over the leaves; and it stops flowering when the days warm in spring.

What it brings is a steady supply of tender pods for a dish, week after week, if you keep picking. A row of pole beans on a trellis gives more from less ground, and looks handsome beside a terrace or a fence.

Green beans are the unripe pods of the common bean, sold in the UAE as French beans or string beans. The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's calendar lists beans with nursery sowing in October to November, field planting in October to November, and harvest 60 to 70 days later (a second figure of 30 to 40 days is also printed). Beans do not like being moved: UF/IFAS says to use seed rather than transplants, and for pole types to sow directly because the roots are weak. Sow where the plants will grow. Clemson Extension says not to plant until the soil is at least 60°F (16°C) at 4 inches deep, which Dubai's mean lows of 25°C in October and 21°C in November comfortably exceed.

Timing matters because beans drop their blossoms in heat. Clemson says blossom drop may be a problem above 90°F (32°C), and Dubai's average high is 35.9°C in October, 30.7°C in November and back to 33.7°C in April. Sown in October and November, beans flower through the cooler months of November to February, and are picked before the heat returns. Sow a short row every 10 to 14 days (Clemson) rather than one large planting, so pods arrive steadily instead of all at once.

UF/IFAS sows bush beans 1 to 2 inches deep and 2 to 3 inches apart in rows 18 to 30 inches apart, in at least eight hours of sun, and keeps the soil consistently moist until seed sprouts. It advises against soaking the seed first and against heavy feeding: half the rate used for other vegetables, since too much nitrogen gives leaf rather than beans. Pole beans yield more from the same ground (UF/IFAS: about 8 pounds from a 10-foot row against 4.5 for bush beans) and need a sturdy trellis put up before sowing. Beans are among the most salt-sensitive crops: FAO's threshold is only 1.0 dS/m, so use mains water and a low-salinity soil mix.