Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Dalmatian Pea Bean
Dalmatian Pea Bean
A variety of bean
A vigorous climber and an old Dalmatian bean, called a pean because the green pods look like pea pods with small peas inside. It is a slow starter that flowers late, so it needs a long season: plant early and harvest last. Eaten green, shelled, or dried (the round white seeds suit baked beans). Crops over many months. Widespread in New Zealand.
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Dalmatian pea bean facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Dalmatian pea bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 50 days at its best temperature, about 675 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Dalmatian pea bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing Dalmatian pea beans
- Dig the bed and add compost 1 week before sowing
- Put up supports for climbing beans 1 week after sowing
- Water regularly at sowing every week
- Weed carefully 3 weeks after sowing every 2 weeks
- Pick beans regularly at first harvest every week
- Leave some pods to dry for seed 6 weeks after first harvest
- Pull out finished plants and dig in the roots 8 weeks after first harvest
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Phaseolus vulgaris L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
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