Effect of Different Picking Stages on Biochemical Parameters of French Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a popular green vegetable grown throughout the country for its delicious pods. In recent years, cultivation of French bean for green pods has been found to be profitable enterprise in Himachal Pradesh due to favourable moderate temperature during flowering and pod formation stage resulting in quality pods along with higher yield. The present research work was planned with special reference to assess the nutritional attributes of promising genotypes at different picking stages. Significant variations in moisture, crude protein, total ash, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, sodium and potassium, total phenols and anti-nutritional factor tannin were observed at three different stages of picking. Fifteen genotypes of French bean were subjected to biochemical estimation and different genotypes emerged to be superior at different picking stages. Genotypes VLB-9, VLFB-2003 followed by MFB-2 and KPV-2, were found to be superior as compared to other genotypes, in order of excellence based on cumulative rating for all the traits at first, second and third stages of picking.