Wow, sorry to hear your beans were so disappointing! I was surprised, since I always think of them as my "never-fail" crop. But perhaps it was the variety. I'm not familiar with Kentucky Blue, but have noticed that there is definitely a difference in growth habit and yield among the various beans.

Last year I planted Black-seeded Blue Lake, a purple bean called Blauhilde, and an Italian variety nick-named "Shrimp Bean" (it's shaped like a shrimp). I was happy with them all. Blauhilde was early and prolific, although I would describe their taste as adequate. They sure were easy to spot for picking, though! The Blue Lake had a much more open habit (fewer leaves) and the beans were good size, flavor, and texture. And the shrimp beans were my favorite! Although much later and slower than the others, they had a lot of "meat" to them and had a great texture when cooked. They also were prolific, but harder to find due to their dense foliage. This year I've going to add a romano (flat Italian var.) to the mix!

I wonder if you wouldn't still have time to try another crop down there since some of them only take 60 days to maturity? Oh, I've been assuming you meant beans for eating as snap beans, not for shelling or drying. Is that right? Well, cheers!

Sunni

MarlinGardener, you may want to check out the Cornell site below for opinions on pole beans. The link below should show search results. I noted that the search results also include long beans. So you may want to skip over these. You'd probably want to give more weight to comments from folks in your area of the US.

Also, there are more bean experts in the legume pea and beans forum.

So far I have Kentucky Wonder, Gold of Bacau and Purple Peacock pole beans. I am also growing Garafal Oro but it has just started to flower. I have a lot of production from my runner beans too, not sure if runner beans do well in TX though, it might be too hot for them?

For us the KW are an old standby, trouble free and great taste. The one drawback is that they do not grow huge as other snap bean varieties do. The Gold of Bacau is a wax bean, it is growing super long and maintaining the tenderness, no seeds and no strings (wow). It is delicious too. The Purple peacock is OK, but a little tougher than the other two, so i guess I should pick them smaller.

Thanks, y'all! Sunni, yes I do mean to eat the beans as snap beans (I should have mentioned that!). Where did you get the seeds for the Italian variety that is a "shrimp bean"? That sounds very interesting. If I can get seed, I can plant beans for the fall garden.
Grandad, thanks for reminding me of the Cornell site. I'll see what people in this neck of the woods have to say.
Cabrita, I had not heard of the wax nor the Peacock beans. I'll do some research and see if they might do well here. I'm leaning toward the wax (Gold of Bacau) of the two.
Y'all have given me food for thought, and hope, too!

I have been planting Emerite pole beans for ten years with great results and they taste good. An eight foot row in my raised bed feeds the whole neighborhood. Of course, this is New England. Have added Fortex beans this year which are highly recommended, also. Hope this helps.

i'm partial to fortex myself.

I planted fortex this year as well because of the stellar reviews I've seen here on this forum. The vines are spindly and the production is low here, but OH MY GOODNESS do they taste fantastic.

I'm telling you, since I don't get enough of them for a meal on their own I mix them in with our other over achieving bush beans and the entire family can pick out which ones are the fortex. I won't be deterred. I'm certianly a believer and trying again next year. I just hope I have the patience. MAN are they tasty!!!

I'm getting good production and flavor from Musica (a romano type) and Duet (green and yellow haricot vert fin type) from Renee's Garden. I've also got bush Dragon's Tongue. I'm awash in green beans this summer. Last summer I had a complete crop failure because the puppy kept digging them up; this year he's a grown dog with more sophisticated taste.

My regular pole bean is Violet Podded stringless. I've grown them both in Bakersfield, CA (zone 8/9, HOT summers) and here in Boise, ID zone 6. They always produce really well and taste great. I also love the color. I figure that if I'm going to grow something, it might as well be a little different than what I can buy at the supermarket.

If it's hot where you're at in Texas, cowpeas, aka Southern peas, would probably do well for you. Southern peas love it sunny and hot, and do well in dry conditions, as opposed to regular beans, which, people say, do poorly (don't set beans) in hot weather.

(Maybe heat caused your beans to do relatively poorly?

You'll have to ask for climbing peas if that's what you want. I think most of the Southern peas are bush with long swingers. You could also look into the related liana/asparagus beans, which I think also grow well in heat.

I was unable to find some of the great old cowpea threads, one was so long it consisted of part I and II & had excellent pics. But do look around on this forum and on the Peas, beans, legume forum. Here are some links
Sand Hill Preservation
Willhiteseed
Southern peas
An observation about cowpeas

I tried to grow pole beans several years ago. Everyone says that they outproduce and are easier to pick than bush beans. I had 3 50 foot rows. I was ready to corner the market with them.

I had vines all over the place and hardly any beans. I bet I only harvested 15-20 pounds of beans the whole year. They were a real disappointment. I am back to bending over and picking a lot more bush beans.

Jxbrown - I have the same pole beans planted: Musica and Duet! I am loving both - so many beans! ....and this year I am diligent about picking every 2-3 days (so at some point I am going to be tired of eating beans ....you think?)

Again, thank you all! I had heard of Fortex, and will add that to my "research list". I also thank you for the source list, and for your impressions of the various beans. Duet, Musica, and Violet Podded stringless? Sound interesting and I'll have to look into those, too.
Thanks to sharing gardeners, I may have a successful planting of pole beans this fall and next spring. I'd love to be the Pole Bean Queen of the area!

I planted Blue Coco Pole Beans from Fedco Coop Seeds, in early May. If I recall correctly, they germinated and popped out of soil in 3.5 days, it was pretty impressive. And I did NOT pre-soak them. Currently I have some of the vines towering to 5 feet. Granted I haven't tried them yet, but I doubt you'd have any germination problem at all, and Fedco seems to only choose exceptional varieties.

"Everyone says that they outproduce and are easier to pick than bush beans. I"

Its funny, but after years of growing pole beans I've switched exclusively to bush beans. I know, the poles are supposed to be more prolific and produce over a longer season. But I've had the same experience, the vines grow and grow, swamping their support poles no matter how tall I make them. Finally by early september, some blossoms. Usually don;t start picking beans till even later. If you miss a day or two picking, the pods are monsters. And unless you'r growing a purple variety, they do seem to love to hide among the vines.
The bush varities do have a big initial harvest. But will produce a second smaller one. And I just love the taste of the little haricot verts, and they stay small, lovely and straight on the plants and are a cinch to pick. I sow in succession to make sure I have haricots all summer long.

Marlin,

If you do become the Pole Bean Queen, could you post back and let us know? I'm not too far from you and I never have much luck with pole beans either. In fact, my conditions/experiences are exactly as you described yours. This will be my first year to try for a fall crop also first year to try bush (pintos). I'm beginning to think I should only grow chard, shallots, and tomatoes in the spring and save everything else for a fall garden, lol.

I grow a pole bean called Louisiana Purple Pod. It is first of all truly delicious, secondly beautiful, since the stems, blooms, and beans are all a beautiful red violet, and thirdly prolific as all get out. I have never known it to heat set. If you can control the Mexican Bean Beetles, you'll be sick of the beans before the vines ever play out. It's a great choice for the Deep South.

Trsinc, yes, I'll post my success/failure with pole beans. I have had great success with Tenderpod bush beans, also Tendergreen. Successive plantings, starting in April, gave me a lot of bush beans (and a sore back from bending over to pick!).
Donnabaskets, thank you for the suggestion about Louisiana Purple Pod--it sounds like it might be one answer to my problem. May I ask where you got the seed?

Sorry, haven't been on the forums in a couple of days! Here's the link to the specific bean (and purveyor), but I know there are other similar ones out there! Now after reading this thread I'm going to have to try some Fortex beans next year! Cheers!

Sunni

Sunni,

Thank you for the link! I just had a happy half-hour perusing their on-line catalog. I requested their 2010 catalog, and will order some "shrimp beans". Let's hope our mutual experiment with Fortex works out.
So many beans, so little garden space . . . .

My pleasure! Yeah, I've always gotten good seed from them and they carry a lot of european/asain varieties that can be fun to try! And I know what you mean about the beans/garden space thing... wonder if my neighbor would mind beans growing up our mutual fence... hmmm...

Sunni

I am growing Marvel of Venice, Garden of Eden, Fortex, Tomato Worm, and Cherokee Trail of Tears pole beans. I treated the seed with Messenger Seed treatment. Everything came up in good order though we have had a cold wet spring. Fortex was the poorest at germinating, Tomato Worm came up first and is beginning to climb well before the others.

Bugs go straight for the Fortex seedlings, ignoring the other varieties almost entirely. THEY KNOW A GOOD THING WHEN THEY SEE IT.

Blight and disease also seek out the Fortex first.

They did not germinate as well as the other beans and I have replanted in the row. Fortex is a weak climber until after it gets about half way up a trellis.

I've grown them for at a number of years and I will continue to grow them for as long as I have a garden because they are delicious!

Next, I am going to try starting the Fortex beans in individual peat pots, then transplant them (very carefully) to the garden once they have a good start and see if they do better.

I am spraying all of the garden with Messenger every 3 weeks.

That's interesting. I put in Fortex this year - the first time I have tried any pole beans - and they literally sprang up the cage I had for them. They put out their first true leaves around June 3rd and as of today they had grown past my head, with healthy side growth on all vines. They are growing visible inches per day, and pulling themselves up the cage vigorously. We have had huge rainfalls this year, which might be key, but they seem to be strong climbers so far.

The germination seemed to be about 75-80% - I replanted one corner where a seedling got bitten off and that one sprouted fine too. I can't speak to how many beans I'll get as they didn't get seeded until late in May so I don't have fruit yet. I've got my fingers crossed on that :)

I must say... I'm surprised by some of the problems I see listed for "Fortex". It has shown excellent cool-soil germination here, and proven to be nearly immune to rust; it is generally my main crop because of its reliability & great flavor. I agree that it is not the strongest climber, it needs a little training at first... but once started, the vines easily cover a 6 & 1/2 foot trellis.

My first impression of "Fortex" was that it was low yielding, compared to "KW White #191" (still one of my favorites) which has massive flushes. The daily pickings are lower, but sustained over a very long period. Because of the thinner vines, I plant them more closely than most pole beans, thinning to 2 @ 12". This partially overcomes the lower yield. Keep in mind, with pods 10-11" long (and still stringless!) you don't need as many. I don't have a problem with yield now, was picking a couple 5-gallon pails every other day from a 60-foot row last year.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "Rattlesnake" pole beans yet, since many in the South have reported excellent results with it. It is another great-tasting bean, and good for freezing. I tried it once & enjoyed it, but other varieties do better in my Northern climate. There is a current thread about it on the Bean Forum.

Some of the Romano-type pole beans seem to be more heat-tolerant than others. Several years back, during an especially hot spell (OK, that's only in the 90's here) an heirloom Romano, "Champagne", was the only pole bean still setting pods.

"Kentucky Wonder" should do well, but you might have better luck with the white-seeded "Kentucky Wonder 191" that I mentioned above. It has a rich "beany" flavor, freezes well, and can have astonishing yields.

As a big fan of pole beans, I can make a few recommendations that might increase the chances of success. Mulch is especially important for pole beans, since they don't cover the ground. The mulch preserves moisture, keeps the roots cool during hot days, and prevents mud from splashing on the leaves (this reduces the chance of disease).

While many have reported planting pole beans closely, they have done best for me when given plenty of room. I plant in rows, and thin to 12" between plants for most pole beans.

Pole beans do best when protected from wind - especially "Fortex", due to its long pods. If you have experienced curled or deformed beans w/hard brown spots, wind bruising is the likely culprit. If possible, plant them down-wind of another tall crop, or in a sheltered location.

Many on GW have commented this year about bean germination problems, most of them probably due to the exceptionally cool, wet start of Summer & the correspondingly lower soil temperatures. For those that planted by the calendar, this led to rotting & germination problems. Don't know if the cool weather we've had up here has been a problem in central Texas. It sounds like the beans were planted at the right time, so unless the rain (or irrigation) was excessive, there should have been no problem.

Marlingardener, do you plant your beans in one of two seasons, Spring or Fall, due to the heat of mid-Summer? If so, there are two bean alternatives that might make it through the heat. I'll second Ppod's recommendation for yardlong beans; "Chinese Red Noodle" is probably the best, a heat lover w/purple pods & great flavor. Baker Creek & several others sell it. You might also want to try the purple-podded Hyacinth Bean, although I am not sure when it would bloom for you.

Zeedman, I have considered Rattlesnake, since it was recommended by ruthieg here in Texas. I want to try it to see if it produces well for us.
Fusion power, thank you so much for the list of beans and their pros/cons. I have printed it out and put it in my gardening book, along with some of the other suggestions I received. So far we have no nematode problem--I interplant French marigolds and rotate crops to minimize the possibility. I freeze beans rather than can, so some of the ones you find lacking for canning might work for freezing. I'll do more research, now that you have pointed me in the right direction.

I live in so.ga. and I have had a terrible time with my pole and bush beans. it rained so much my roma bush beans drown at about a foot tall. my kent.won. poles most came thru the flooding and i went out of town last weekend and the deer come thru and ate them down to the first wire a foot off the ground. I want to can my beans. Whatshould I try for a fall crop and when. oh by the way this is my first garden and the only things that seem to be doing well are the cukes and weeds.

I have always wanted a small garden so in early April my boyfriend and I planted a small garden. However our Kentucky wonder green beans are STILL only about 6 inches tall and they are a light colored green. I'm not sure just what to expect but my boyfriend says they should be greener and MUCH taller. What did we do wrong? We used good soil and ferilizer with manuer.

In southern California, we have serious problems with nematodes because we have no winter freeze to kill them annually. So they build up over time. I followed fusion-power's suggestions below and I concur in all his ratings. We have had to give up our favorite pole bean (Kwintus, aka Early Riser and Northeaster) because of nematodes. So we've switched to Rattlesnake and Alabama #1. I bought some Marbut, but have yet to plant them. The early Rattlesnake beans are good. The slower growing Alabama #1 are just beginning to flower but the plants are verdant and thriving. The only source that we could find for Alabama #1 and Marbut was Sandhill Preservation Center. Their seeds seem to be good.

Follow-up. Rattlesnake faded, due to nematodes. But Alabama #1 did well. It is very slow to produce and the beans are not uniform or profuse, but they are good and the plants are worth growing if no other pole beans will survive the nematodes.