Hi Susan I am interested in your sunflower. Are pumpkins large or the small pie pumpkin ?(I have them)Have Hyacinth bean.By feb. I will be getting more seeds to trade.Also have Scarlett runner bean, and a very nice eating (flower) pole bean.

Beans often self-pollinate before the blossoms even open up. That's one reason why they are such good seed saver crops. I'm not sure what commercial growers do to ensure cross-pollination. But again, the only way to know would be to plant some saved seeds.

Amber, I've put a fair amount of time and thought into this problem since this thread started. Nitrogen can indeed cause this problem. But I really think the most common problem is heat. And I don't understand the dynamics of it. I have a variety of bean, which if planted too late, won't produce beans until cooler weather in the late summer. But if it does start flowering before the heat gets going too strongly, it will continue producing. I'm not positive about Blue Lake Pole Beans. But I am pretty sure that Kentucky Wonder pole beans are sensitive to high temperatures. These seem to be the two most commonly sold varieties at the big box stores. Hopefully you beans are just getting started and will produce very soon. But if they don't really produce until cooler weather, then next year, I'd recommend that you 1) plant earlier and/or 2) try something noted for heat resistance. Go online and look up something like Rattlesnake pole bean. Give that a try. George Tahlequah, OK

I grow mostly bush. They produce heavily all at once. I can get several pickings off them before they're spent, and have turned the space over as many as three times in one season. The pole beans produce over the entire season, but more sparingly. I do a lot of canning, so it's easy to see I want a large amount of beans coming on at one time. It's sort of like the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. If you want lots of fruit all at once, you grow determinates. If you want less production over a longer time frame, you grow indeterminates. I also don't want to have the trouble, expense of poling them up. Space isn'ts a factor in my gardens. Yes, customers will often ask for a bean by name. They'll know a top crop from a provider. Beans shape and age when you have to harvest comes into play. Do you want a long slender bean? One you have to pick early to keep it from being tough? Does it string up if left too long? I know I had trouble with the provider bush bean. It looked wonderful in the basket, but if you kept it on the plant as long as a top crop, it stringed up and got tough.