What it is
Scarlet Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus) is in the Fabaceae (Legume) family. Brilliant red flowers hummingbirds fight over, edible beans, and tuberous roots that can overwinter — beauty and calories on one vine.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it even moisture, and give it rich, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 6 in apart. Expect roughly 60–70 for beans. Tender perennial.
How it's used
Scarlet Runner Bean is used: young pods, shelled beans, flowers.
🔎 How to identify it
- Large heart-shaped leaflets in threes
- Vivid scarlet pea flowers
- Big speckled purple-black seeds
Edibility
How to grow & propagate scarlet runner bean
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate scarlet runner bean
Legumes resent transplanting — that taproot wants to go straight down — so sow them right where they'll grow once the soil has warmed. Soak hard-coated seed overnight to speed germination. As a bonus, this whole family pulls nitrogen out of the air and banks it in the soil, so wherever you grow them you're feeding next season's crop.
Growing scarlet runner bean in Texas
Give it full sun and rich, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 60–70 for beans before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: pods, beans, flowers.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.