- Prefer - an alternative to direct sowing
- Preparing beans in the greenhouse
- Prefer beans in the cold frame
- tips and tricks
Beans from our own garden provide fresh vitamins. After a long winter, your fingers are itching to start growing. Direct sowing in the bed has to wait until mid-May. Greenhouses and cold frames, on the other hand, offer the opportunity to start growing beans earlier.

Prefer - an alternative to direct sowing
A good alternative for growing beans are cold frames and greenhouses, even if the soil warms up only moderately in spring due to persistently cool temperatures.
The soil temperature should be at least 10 to 12 degrees Celsius so that the soil seed can germinate. The warmer the soil, the faster the seedlings develop and the young plants become more resistant to snails and diseases.
In the greenhouse and cold frame, the bean seeds find a preheated soil and the humid climate provides an additional growth spurt. Preferring is suitable for the heat-loving runner and bush beans
Preparing beans in the greenhouse
Both the cold and the heated greenhouse are suitable for growing the beans. Sowing the beans in the cold greenhouse begins at the end of March and sowing in the heated greenhouse takes place at the beginning of March:
- Loosen and moisten the soil
- Soak the bean seeds in water overnight
- Lay out bean seeds next to each other and cover lightly with soil
- pay attention to a humid and warm climate in the greenhouse, 20 - 25 degrees Celsius is ideal
- Germination time about 6 - 10 days
- the young bean plants are easy to grab with your fingers, prick out and let grow into strong plants
- move outdoors from mid-May
Prefer beans in the cold frame
- possible from March
- Prepare soil, only mix in compost for beans
- Put the seeds, possibly pre-soaked, about 1 - 2 cm deep into the moistened soil
- leave the cover on the cold frame to drive it out, so that the warm, humid climate is maintained
- protect with fleece or blankets in case of frost
- Separate young plants and get used to the climate by opening the cover in sunny weather
- Moving outdoors from mid-May
tips and tricks
If you want to leave your beans in the greenhouse until harvest, choose a variety that doesn't grow too tall and therefore doesn't need long trellises. The "Rakker" variety from Sperli is well suited. "Rakker" is a green spaghetti bean with 40 to 90 cm long, slender pods and a mildly aromatic taste.