I haven't had a lot of beans yet so I have been picking and saving for a few days but yesterday finially had enough for a meal. The Long Beans were SOOO good. I lightly sauteed them in some olive oil with chopped garlic. Added some dried onion flakes and a few red pepper flakes. Sweet and tender and I LOVE the flavor. If you ask me these are much better than string beans. I had them with a grilled steak and some grilled fried green tomatoes. YUMM, yumm, yum. zeedman, love your pictures of the cooked beans. Yes, I am sure they made us all hungry. I am so pleased that I might even try more varieties of Yard Long Beans next year.

Most yardlongs do well here, although I need to start the pole varieties in pots to get good results & harvest dry seed. There are quite a few varieties floating around, with pods that are many shades of green, reddish purple, or combinations of green & red. The photo below shows 4 varieties that I grew in 2010: This is an example of some of the diversity available. From top down: "Yancheng Bush", from a GW swap; a black-seeded variety originally from Jungs (given to me, name lost); "Chinese Red Noodle" (from Baker Creek); and "Galante", a variety from the Philippines. Although I prefer the pole varieties, I've come to appreciate the rapid maturity of the bush variety. Haven't really had trouble with aphids here, except early in the season... my beneficial insect population generally wipes them out about mid-summer most years. The exceptions are when the ant population is high; they "farm" aphids & spread them rapidly. If I wipe out the ant nest(s), predators take care of the aphids. Yardlongs (like cowpeas, to which they are related) will attract beneficial insects when they begin to bloom. Ladybugs & wasps will frequent the vines... it's one of the best ways I know to keep adult ladybugs in the garden. The wasps are not much of a problem, the nectar seems to pacify them. But ants can be attracted to the extra-floral nectaries located below the flowers, and these will defend the tops of the pods aggressively. Black ants are only a minor nuisance, but I've had carpenter ants on the vines a few years, and they bite. I concur with those recommending a tall trellis. The bean trellises I use are 6 & 1/2 feet tall, supported by T-posts, and the vines will easily take that & more. They might need some encouragement to get started, though; "Red Noodle" can be particularly stubborn in that regard. If you want to use a shorter support, crowd them closely & it will stunt the vines. You can grow them without support, but the long pods will trail on the ground, and bugs/snails tend to bite holes in them. The black-seeded yardlong on a tall trellis Tracydr's comment about watering is a good one. The pods will indeed get spongy quickly if conditions are dry, especially in hot weather. With a heavy mulch & frequent deep watering, the pods stay succulent to a larger diameter. Last year we had record summer rainfall here, and while my pole beans languished in the mud, the yardlongs thrived - my best year ever. Don't spare the water! "Chinese Red Noodle" is one of the best varieties I've tried for flavor, and is firmer cooked than some of the others. It is also a heat lover, so it does well in the South. When cooked, it turns grayish; but a dash of vinegar restores the deep burgundy color. The wife usually uses yardlongs in stir fry or soups. We also eat them as a vegetable, lightly cooked & seasoned with vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic powder. "Red Noodle" is outstanding eaten that way, really eye catching. You can blanch & freeze yardlongs just like green beans; but because the pods are fairly dry, they are very susceptible to freezer burn, and deteriorate quickly. I've had good results, though, if I vacuum sealed the beans immediately after freezing.

"Chinese Red Noodle" is one of the best-tasting yardlongs that I have grown... plus, it is very attractive. Unlike purple snap beans, the purple-red color is _not_ lost in cooking. The pods are a little shorter than most yardlongs. They have a firm texture when cooked. However, the vines seem to need more heat than most of those that I have grown, which unless you are a coastal Zone 7, should not be a problem. It freezes well. "Taiwan Black" was extremely vigorous, bore early & heavily, and had impressively long pods... many actually becoming "yard long" when mature. At harvest stage, they are very light green, slender, and got second looks by everyone who saw them. But I was not impressed by its flavor, which was very mild in comparison with other yardlongs. The pods also developed fiber very quickly, so they needed to be harvested very young (when they were "only" 24" long!), on a daily basis during warm weather. "Liana" is heavy-bearing, and very early. The pods are dark green, and have the true "asparagus bean" flavor when cooked lightly (as all yardlongs should be). This is probably the easiest & most reliable yardlong. My other favorites are either heirlooms, or foreign commercial varieties... all from the Philippines. One of these is a purple-podded variety with slender pods nearly as long as "Taiwan Black". I grew it when I lived in San Diego, and it is my all-time favorite for flavor... it was even crunchy, sweet, & nut-like raw. But it is also tropical & daylength-sensitive, so it can only be grown in a few areas of the U.S. Unfortunately, Wisconsin is not one of them. :-( I'm still looking for a tropical grower to keep the seed alive for me. Two commercial varieties from the Philippines did surprisingly well here in Wisconsin, given their tropical origins (many tropical varieties are daylength-sensitive). "Galante" and "Sierra Madre" are both mid-season DTM, and are described in much greater detail (including photos) in the link below. They have many good qualities, and it would not surprise me if one or both of them becomes a commercial variety here. Here is a link that might be useful: Asparagus Beans

AdrianaG, Your description of your bean structure sounds interesting. I'd also like to see a picture if you have one. My pole beans were planted next to bamboo poles that were quite tall, but since the plants had nothing else to cling to, I ended up winding each plant around its own pole - not a very good idea as many of the beans ended up threading themselves around the "maypole", making it hard to harvest, besides the beans would end up misshapen, too. We were thinking of doing what you did, but are kind of afraid of the next step. Seeing your structure would give us courage . . .