The Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an economically important crop cultivated worldwide, with a high digestible plant protein content of up to 27%. In Colombia is cultivated in soils with low Phosphorus (P) availability or with adverse soil chemical conditions. A field experiment was conducted at Rionegro, Colombia, to quantify the contribution of each physiological process to yield and to identify traits that improve common bean productivity. Eight common bean genotypes, climbing type, were evaluated at three P-restriction levels (25, 50, and 75% of P-relative to the control), according to the recommended dose. The P-restrictions were imposed 30 days after sowing. Treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement and three replications, where P-doses were the main plots. Physiological data were recorded at five growth stages using the GreenSeeker® and MultiSpeQ® devices for the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), quantum yield of photosystem II (Phi2), non-photochemical quenching (NPQt), ratio of incoming light that is lost via a non-regulated process (PhiNO), and relative chlorophyll (SPAD). Statistical differences (P < 0 .05) were found among treatments (P-restrictions) and genotypes for all variables studied. Results showed that the 50 and 75% P-reduction treatments had the largest reduction effect on the bean genotypes. Three genotypes showed higher Phi2 and SPAD values at 50% of P-reduction. NDVI values during flowering ranged from 0.72 to 0.80, suggesting this phenological stage as a marker to identify P-stress. SPAD values among treatments indicated high genotype susceptibility to P-deficit at 75% restriction. The genotype “G51018” showed high performance under severe and moderate P-restriction. This kind of physiological data was useful to identify superior or candidate genotypes, and will be used for procedures for genome-environment associations, including physiological data to dissect complex quantitative traits such as yield.