What Do You Prefer, Bush Beans or Pole Beans?

[so lucky]

@Zeedman , do you save seed from your Fortex beans? One of my seed catalogs listed it as a hybrid.

 

[flowerbug]

They might not be very well acclimated but I like them .

@flowerbug , maybe I don't appreciate the delicacy of stringbeans but some of the modern types have very little bean flavor. I was pleased to have found Greencrop as a bush bean but DW put the kibosh on that one years ago.

I thought purple bush beans were okay but she definitely resists.

I thought that I was doing well to venture away from pinto, red kidney and navy. But, we don't eat many dry beans - fresh (!) you know. The Rattlesnake is tasty both green and dry and DW likes them dry, fortunately for me.

why the resistance? i'll give both the ones you mention a try some time.

 

[digitS']

@flowerbug ,

DW likes mild-flavored green beans. They are okay with me but I recognize that absence of flavor.

There is kind of a "meatiness" to rattlesnake dry beans and we both like them. There is also a blend that she buys from the store that has limas, blackeyed peas and kidney beans. That has some tasty complexity. I imagine that you mix your dry beans sometimes.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I em enjoying @Prairie Rose posts bc PrairieRose lives only a few hours from me and I can benefit from the advice. Ya know, like asking advice from your cousin.
I am REALLY a bean novice. I have tried planting before, and last year I planted bush beans right next to fencing. Thought that they would climb, never did, had a mediocre harvest. THIS year I am planting mostly pole beans and they will be right next to the old cattle fencing on the S-SE perimeter of my property an nowhere NEAR where the horses can grab them. Funny, when I fenced off a garden area, which became my 55' x 65' horse training area when I put in Real horse pipe fencing, I had a couple of cantaloupe plants. They never really produced, but Right Before I was going to harvest one, my big 16'2hh TW (RIP, now), put his head over the fence and grabbed it for a light snack. Horses Do that.
DD's are both working and getting paid, but Youngest DD, an ASA in our county, is on rotation through April 10th, so she is not in the office every day. She and I have been Spring Cleaning, and both DD's who promised to paint my upstairs office, got it prepped yesterday for painting next weekend. This was a long project in the making, removing the last of the wallpaper, sanding the plaster and repairing, then painting. We bought the paint December 2018, and I stored it in the basement, where it sits and waits right now. Since painting DH's office 4 years ago, same sized room, we knew how much to get. Some, but not All of our list of jobs-in-waiting are getting done. I bought DD's two 4' x 8' trellis for their garage and I bet we screw those in next week. It will be white plastic trellis against rust colored wooden paneling. They have a small, 10 inch wide, ~16 ft long, east facing bed between their 1 car garage and the sidewalk to the back. I bought scarlett runner beans to plant there. I have even been prepping plastic pots with newspaper (and paperbags) linings so that I can start them next week and hopefully avoid transplant shock. HOPEFULLY they will have pretty vines. If they harvest in time, we will eat them. If not, I will harvest the seed pods and the seeds. Either way, the red flowers should look nice and then something ELSE that vines can grow there next year.

 

[Collector]

We prefer bush beans for our main bean crop. We have a lifetime supply of blue lake bush seed . We plant 16” wide triple rows and wait until the first beans get to max size then pull them all up and harvest in the shade of the carport or garage and shred the plants into compost. We find it better for canning and freezing to get them all at once and be done with it. We still have around 15 pints of dilly beans and several bags of frozen snapped beans in our storage. We also grow pole beans for fresh eating during the summer and fall. Been growing turkey craw pole beans the last few years but switching over to a earlier to mature pole bean variety. If anyone is interested in trying turkey craw I think we have a full package from sand hill to be had.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman , do you save seed from your Fortex beans? One of my seed catalogs listed it as a hybrid.

Yes, I save seed from Fortex (did so last year). Not the easiest bean to save seed from here, the pods take an unusually long time to go from snap to dry, which ends up being a race against the frost. Like many commercial bean varieties, it may have begun as a hybrid, but was stabilized before entering the seed trade... it is OP now, and breeds true from seed. The same is true of any bean or pea sold commercially. While some are advertised as "hybrids", they will all breed true from saved seed, unless crossing with another variety has taken place.

 

[so lucky]

Yes, I save seed from Fortex (did so last year). Not the easiest bean to save seed from here, the pods take am unusually long time to go from snap to dry, which ends up being a race against the frost. Like many commercial bean varieties, it may have begun as a hybrid, but was stabilized before entering the seed trade... it is OP now, and breeds true from seed. The same is true of any bean or pea sold commercially. While some are advertised as "hybrids", they will all breed true from saved seed, unless crossing with another variety has taken place.

I suspect I had some beans lie dormant for a year, then germinate and compete with the slow starting Fortex that I planted. Brand X was much more vigorous and took over the supports. When harvested they were fat, lumpy, tough, stringy....all the qualities you don't want. Made me a little shy about planting Fordex again. I wondered at the time if Fordex could have crossed with some greasy cut shorts I planted a few years back. I didn't believe so, but wondered anyway.

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug ,

DW likes mild-flavored green beans. They are okay with me but I recognize that absence of flavor.

There is kind of a "meatiness" to rattlesnake dry beans and we both like them. There is also a blend that she buys from the store that has limas, blackeyed peas and kidney beans. That has some tasty complexity. I imagine that you mix your dry beans sometimes.

Steve

next year i'll send you some Purple Dove to try. maybe she will like them or not. our favorite from last year. Mom is kinda picky about what she likes and she likes these either steamed or as a dry bean. i like them when still crunchy too. they are early, productive and well worth growing, sandy or clay they do great for us.

dry bean mixes? haha... the last batch i made had a large number of different kinds in it as they were the last of the rejects plus ones i culled from my collection so i couldn't say how many were in there other than over 50 and maybe up to a few hundred. the majority of them were pinto and pinto varieties/crosses/selections that weren't being popular to anyone else other than me.

i also grow single variety batches here or there for variety too. we like the lima beans, yellow eye, etc.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I grow rattle snake green beans. They do really well here in the heat of summer. This will be my 3rd year planting my own beans. I find they get better each year since they are acclimatizing to our area.

Rattlesnake bean is an heirloom cultivar of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The pods are 6 to 8-inch long with purple markings, and the seeds are light brown with brown markings, still visible after frying. They're named for the snake-like manner in which their pods coil around the plant. we would love to have that here to Philippines.

 

[majorcatfish]

Rattlesnake bean is an heirloom cultivar of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The pods are 6 to 8-inch long with purple markings, and the seeds are light brown with brown markings, still visible after frying. They're named for the snake-like manner in which their pods coil around the plant. we would love to have that here to Philippines.

contact your minister of agriculture heres their addy

Home - Official Portal of the Department of Agriculture

Republic of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture | Office located at Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

www.da.gov.ph