[rowlandwells]

depending on what beans you've been growing this year so what is your preference for a good eating bean maybe its runner beans French beans flat podded beans dwarf beans perhaps an Italian variety do you go for a stringless variety the varieties are plenty

I guess like us you grow your beans more for taste than quantity unlike the commercial growers who grow for supermarkets and other outlets  more I guess for  quantity

so what bean varieties do grow grow and consider is the best for you do you think runner beans are better than French or vice versa we tend to freeze our beans to use in the winter months when pickings of the allotments are  a bit sparse

the variety we hope to grow next year will be Armstrong as runner and Cobra as a climbing French bean we also intend to grow Dwarf French Stanley never grew the Italian or red bean because not sure how to cook it  or what it complements we have grew flat  podded in the past and they cropped well and had a good taste

i know it seems early to talk about growing beans but as you flit through those seed catalogues trying to decide what variety to grow decisions decisions you mite even end up buying the same variety as you did last year  so any comments what varieties you grew and how they turned out for you is always of interest  I'm sure to most of our members including me

and on the subject of Beans broad beans come to mind I know some of you have already set your broad beans to overwinter so again what do you think in your opinion is the best broad bean to grow for both overwintering and spring sowings we don't sow broad beans to overwinter so our spring sowings are a green bean variety Masterpiece green longpod and all our beans are started of in the greenhouse or poly tunnel

so any replies to this topic  will be most welcome

[mumofstig]

I just lurve runner beans, White Lady is my favourite, but over the last few years, it has been ( ) increasingly difficult to get them to germinate, with loads rotting before they do  I went through 3 packets of seed last year, to just get a short row. So this year I'm trying Moonlight, one of the new-style self-pollinating varieties. See how that grows for me...
I also grow Mennonite Purple Stripe, which is a heritage climbing variety and I save the seeds for these and Cosse Violet (a purple podded French bean) every year.

I also grow Gigandes, climbing, for winter dried beans, and/or Spagna Bianco a similar white bean but they are a bit smaller size.

[Goosegirl]

I love climbing French beans as they don't take up a lot of ground space so don't grow runners or broads. This year my Cobra were also difficult to germinate. Next year I might try Blue Lake for a change. I grow just one and plant it in my greenhouse as I don't have the room outside plus it can get a bit windy here. I also find they don't turn up at the bottom.

[Hampshire Hog]

My runner beans were amazing this year they kept coming.
I can only assume I was being rewarded for having dug a trench in the winter and filling it with compost and chicken manure pellets. My climbing french beans failed though that might have just been the pesky rabbits!

[Nobbie]

I’ve spent years trying to find a French bean I like and have now settled on
Kinghorn Wax which seems easy to grow, tasty and I particularly like the way the beans turn yellow as they mature so they stand out when picking them.

[Growster...]

I was the other way round with 'Moonlight' and 'White Lady', Mum, but this year we had a decent crop eventually! They are superb croppers when they eventually get going though!

Next year, it'll be some more 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' beans, which our lovely friend Sunshine Band gave me ages ago!

I don't know what sort of germination I'll get, but we have quite a few still here, and they'll have a decent bed to grow in hopefully!

[Kleftiwallah]

Honestly, I cannot see the point of dwarf beans.  Why grow a plant with a reduces 'surface area' when you can grow a 'BIGGIE'  using about the same ground space...

Cheers,  Tony.

[hasbeans]

Honestly, I cannot see the point of dwarf beans.  Why grow a plant with a reduces 'surface area' when you can grow a 'BIGGIE'  using about the same ground space...

Cheers,  Tony.

I grow them in a 3ft x 3ft coldframe which lets me start them early and I take the top off once the risk of frost is past.  It generally provides enough beans for two of us for a few months.  I'll grow tall beans elsewhere which mostly end up in the freezer.  The other reason dwarf is useful for me is space is tight and they can go on the south side of a taller crop

After trying lots of varieties I'm sticking with purple and yellow wax ones as they are so much easier to find.

[Omega]

I just lurve runner beans, White Lady is my favourite, but over the last few years, it has been ( ) increasingly difficult to get them to germinate, with loads rotting before they do  I went through 3 packets of seed last year, to just get a short row.

I find starting runner beans in the ground can be hit and miss so I changed to starting them in pots with compost, usually 4 in an 8” pot. As soon as they are through (next day) I plant them in the ground, add some slug pellets and cover to keep the pigeons etc away.

In pots I nearly always get 100% germination. They don't seem to suffer from being planted in the ground so quickly after germinating, you just need to be careful as there will only be 1 or 2 roots and the compost can easily fall off. I don't wait too long before transplanting as otherwise the roots from the different beans would be intertwined and likely inseparable. If you wanted to wait longer before planting out you could do one bean per pot, but I think (without any scientific evidence) that it’s better for the roots to grow out in the ground rather than round and round in a pot.

[AnneB]

I just love beans and always grow quite a few.  My preference is for climbing ones as generally a better yield, but 1 or 2 dwarf beans make the grade.  This is my list:
Cobra
Cosse Violette
Kentucky Wonder Wax
Gigantes
Celebration
Red and White
Hutterite Soup
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Lazy Housewife
Snowcap
Black Knight
Sonesta
Veitch's Climbing Bean
Uplands

[Growster...]

Here, it's usually seven or eight beans per six-inch pot, in the GH, and when they're about eight inches high, they're ready to go out!

They do need a little teasing as the roots are quite long, but as long as they've germinated and grown quickly, this doesn't seem to be a problem.

Last year, a local chum had lost all his beans to slugs, so I just chucked a load of our own old seed in a pot, and gave him the plants a month later, and we were both well-pleased!

[mumofstig]

I find starting runner beans in the ground can be hit and miss so I changed to starting them in pots with compost, usually 4 in an 8” pot. As soon as they are through (next day) I plant them in the ground, add some slug pellets and cover to keep the pigeons etc away.

In pots I nearly always get 100% germination.

They were sown in pots in the greenhouse. I even tried a different compost- in case I had a duff bag, but most still rotted. No success until I finally tried a different variety .

[Subversive_plot]

My favorite is Kentucky Wonder, a pole bean (I think you would call it a climbing French bean). It needs a tall trellis or fence to grow on, but produces well.

[Bm1]

Hi all, I am new to this site and have been struggling to find how to start a new post if anyone can help please?
While I’m on here, I bought a packet of sliced runner beans from Marks and Spencer's one time and they were so tasty that I have been trying to grow every variety I can find to replicate that un explainable moreish taste, with no avail. They all seem to taste the same. I'm thinking it must be what they feed their runners on or their soil that makes them taste so moreish, do you know what I mean ? Thanks

[Aunt Sally]

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