[Kristen]

Anyone recommend any French beans for performance and taste a good all rounder please

I think the Variety discussions are subjective - depending on both your preference/taste and also growing conditions / husbandry.  My advice would be to grow a selection (if you can blag a few seeds of several varieties, or don't mind buying packets of several - and putting the spares into the seed parcel maybe? ), the ones recommended here are a good starter-list of course ...

We like Cobra and Blue Lake. I also grow a flat climbing French bean (usually Limka) as my family prefer them to runners [also available as a Dwarf French - "Masterpiece" I think].  I don't think they have much flavour (but the family love them) so perhaps not good for your "Taste" list ...

I have never had a performance or productivity issues with any variety I have grown so, assuming no one else has, those criteria may not be particularly important.

I grow a few Dwarf French for an earlier crop, and I sow a seed in the hole where I plant my plants [i.e. the Climbers] out (to bring on a later crop - the first sowing (indoors) of French Climbing give up before the first frost for me, whereas my Runners carry on, hence the additional 2nd sowing of French Climbers.  I grub out the Dwarf French as soon as the climbers start producing.  Does my back in trying to pick from them!  I grow some Dwarf French earlier and put them in the greenhouse - to get some early beans before the outdoor crops are on stream.

[lettice]

I've grown purple green also last few years. They grow anywhere, in pots well too and very productive.
I have grown them in the same pots I grow my sweet peas in, they grow well together and being a dwarf it does not really interfere with the flowers, plus look lovely with the dark purple beans in the lower half of my pyramid and sweet peas on the upper level.

I'm growing dwarf Opera this year too, I grew them a few years back and also very tasty and productive.

[ptarmigan]

Kristen - that's a brilliant idea of sowing a seed when you plant out the bean plants - I'll try that!

[Sparkyrog]

sowed Opera today in heated GH for the poly ,only a dozen for an early taste 

[Dave NE]

.  I grub out the Dwarf French as soon as the climbers start producing. 
Hi Kristen, nowerdays I leave the roots of all my beans/peas in the ground to fix nitrogen, as an example, last year my blue lake and Lady Dia runners were cut at ground level and in November 2014 I planted Wilkos garlic over the top of the old roots and now they are looking really healthy, cheers Dave

[Yorkie]

.  I grub out the Dwarf French as soon as the climbers start producing. 
Hi Kristen, nowerdays I leave the roots of all my beans/peas in the ground to fix nitrogen, as an example, last year my blue lake and Lady Dia runners were cut at ground level and in November 2014 I planted Wilkos garlic over the top of the old roots and now they are looking really healthy, cheers Dave

Research a couple of years ago proved that there was no real nitrogen benefit to leaving roots in the ground - all the nitrogen was taken up into the plant.

[Kristen]

.  I grub out the Dwarf French as soon as the climbers start producing. 
Hi Kristen, nowerdays I leave the roots of all my beans/peas in the ground to fix nitrogen

Yup, "grub out" was a poor choice of words, sorry. I just cut the tops off and leave the roots

[Kristen]

Research a couple of years ago proved that there was no real nitrogen benefit to leaving roots in the ground - all the nitrogen was taken up into the plant.

I'm not sure I'm convinced of that (easy to not be convinced of carefully researched science that flies in the face of traditional knowledge!!)

Farmers tell me that crops following legumes do well ... I suppose them might be leaving chopped-up tops in the field and they might be composting to provide the Nitrogen (but then they would for non legume crops too).

What I do doubt is that the benefit lasts very long - I reckon the Nitrogen would be washed out of the soil by the next season - but I think leaving the root nodule symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria behind must leave behind the Nitrogen that they contain?

[GrannieAnnie]

I like climbing Blue Lake too!   

[LotuSeed]

.  I grub out the Dwarf French as soon as the climbers start producing. 
Hi Kristen, nowerdays I leave the roots of all my beans/peas in the ground to fix nitrogen, as an example, last year my blue lake and Lady Dia runners were cut at ground level and in November 2014 I planted Wilkos garlic over the top of the old roots and now they are looking really healthy, cheers Dave

Research a couple of years ago proved that there was no real nitrogen benefit to leaving roots in the ground - all the nitrogen was taken up into the plant.

I've heard that too. Once the plants start producing flowers and then beans, they've started using up the nitrogen they've fixed into the soil while they were growing. Apparently it works with field beans, provided they are dug into the soil before they start producing flowers.

[Kristen]

Once the plants start producing flowers and then beans, they've started using up the nitrogen they've fixed into the soil while they were growing.

That's the bit of the science that I don't get - can someone explain it to me please?

I thought that the Nitrogen was fixed by bacteria living / colonising nodules on the roots symbiotically.  If the plant doesn't need Nitrogen any more or its top is cut off, surely the Bacteria are still there?  If they need something from the plant to live then they will die, but isn't there some "reserve" of Nitrogen in those nodules / roots?

[gremlin]

Another vote for Cosse Violette.

[Bombus]

I grew Cheroke Trail of Tears last year. They were late producing a crop, and in my opinion, not very tasty to eat.

[pa snips]

I grew Cheroke Trail of Tears last year. They were late producing a crop, and in my opinion, not very tasty to eat.

I grew some a few years ago not that tasty
 Perhaps they were called that A pocket full of miserable beans

[mumofstig]

Kristen, please read this old thread which explains the comment.
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=113251.msg1295430#msg1295430