skip to main content

Beans, Peas & Legumes

Which beans are best for Poles?

11 years ago

HI, I'm a newbie in the bean area. I want to plant some pole beans with my preschool class and was wondering what type of bean is best for polls. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Brighty

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

sweetquietplace
11 years ago
What a great project! Perhaps a Blue Lake would be my choice for this. When they are ready, the children could pick them and eat them raw...tender, crisp, delicious.
dlsm
11 years ago
Brighty, what a wonderful learning project for the children. I would suggest planting several types of a few each. Green Beans, Limas, etc and different colors.

Good luck,
Luther
Related Discussions
Best non canning pole beans
Q
Comments (9)
You will soon be deluged in suggestions! Mark, I'd start out by asking do you like your green beans with a lot of bean (seed) in them, or do you like lots of tender pod with little seed? Most people tend to go with the latter. My folks used to raise Kentucky Wonder Pole beans, which were best used with the seeds barely developing in them. Kentucky Wonder is a great bean, and very prolific. Many on this forum will recommend Fortex. Another name which I've heard, quite a bit is Blue Marbut. Jeminez gets rave reviews by some. I'm going to try it this year. Take a look at Sandhill Preservation Center for these two and some other good ones: http://www.heirlooms.org/catalog.html My favorites are those which can fill out quite a bit and stay tender. Most beans like this also have strings and and need to be strung when prepared. But they stay tender longer and they tend to have a more "beany" flavor. Below is a link to Sustainable Mountain Agriculture, which promotes such beans and sells seed. Twenty-four feet is a very respectable planting. May you have a wonderful productive gardening year! George Tahlequah, OK Here is a link that might be useful: Sustainable Mountain Agriculture
...See More
Which bush bean is the best?
Q
Comments (14)
I like to grow both bush and pole (snap) beans. 2011 was a fabulous year for veggies here in Germany. I hit 100 kg for the first time (138 in '11 after 98.7 in '10 and 91.3 in '09). My favorites are: Amethyst - a blue bush. (Purple teepee and Bluevetta were good too). The other one I love is Rocdor, an improved version of the aforementioned Rocquencourt. Tasty, tender and yields getting close to 3 kg per square meter. Planted Speedy and Contender and had good results as well. But Amethyst and Rocdor are my top picks. For Pole beans I use Blauhilde, easy to spot, good yields. My trellis can be seen here http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/577794424xxqfpv . 2 metal frames, wooden beam and tent pegs + clothing line. Here is a link that might be useful: my bean trellis
...See More
Best pole beans
Q
Comments (15)
>"For fresh shelling (our favorite), I grow borlottos, wren's eggs, cranberry, and this year I'm trying "Bianco di Spagna" pole cannellini"Ahhh... a kindred spirit. Since I tried my first home-grown "King of the Garden" limas fresh, I have been hooked on green-shelled legumes. Edamame & shellies were just a natural progression from there, and the search for heirloom shell beans is my longest ongoing garden project. Nearly all of my beans are pole varieties, including all that follow... Jimster is right, they really grow on you. ;-) I grow & freeze a lot of snaps; but I freeze even more shellies. The majority are heirlooms that are not commercially available, perhaps because so few people (in this country) still know about eating beans in this fashion. Of these, "Soissons Vert" (a pole flageolet still available in Europe), "Ma Williams" (a.k.a. "Goose" or "Pumpkin Bean"), "Jembo Polish", and "Brita's Foot Long" are some of the best. I also grow several "horticultural" beans, which are large speckled beans similar to the cranberries & borlottos. Some of them taste more like potatoes to me than beans... but they are pleasant with butter, salt, and herbs. Most of my shelly beans are better described in the "Shelly Bean" thread... go figure. (lol) "Wren's Egg" is the only commercial pole shelly that I tried (aside from a bush variety many years ago), and I enjoyed it. The vines are not as vigorous as some, so this might be a good cornfield bean. I have not tried the borlottos yet, but if my suspicions are correct, they may be similar - if not identical - to many of the "horticulturals". For snaps, "Fortex", "Emerite", "Kentucky Wonder", "Garafal Oro" and (Ferry Morse) "Pole 191" are my favorites. I grew "Trionfo Violetto" last year, and while it had the most attractive pods, it was out-yielded by an heirloom purple variety, "Czechoslovakian". For pole wax beans... well, there is a current thread dedicated just to them, so I won't repeat them here. Incidentally, besides checking out the related "Shelly Bean" and "Pole Wax Bean" threads in this forum, you might want to check out the "Sieva Lima" thread in the Vegetable Forum, since it discusses many pole limas.
...See More
what type of beans work best Bush or Pole
Q
Comments (9)
When you have a limited amount of space like I do trellising space is crucial.I have two 4x8 beds which face north to south direction so putting a trellis at south end of the garden would shade out everything else. I put the trellis on the north end which gives me 4 squares per bed(8 squares in all).I plant 4 squares in tomatoes and 4 in green beans. I added some extra trellising space up the sides of both beds which I used for cuks and more tomatoes. I would like to plant other vining type plants like butter beans or summer squash but trellis space is unavailable and none can be added because it would shade out other plants. Planting the bush beans is a really good idea for canning, but how many squares does it take to make a large enough crop for canning, and do you have any problems with them getting into other squares?
...See More
zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
11 years ago
Kids love purple, and are impressed by things that are worth bragging about. I would suggest "Chinese Red Noodle" yardlong beans... or for that matter, any yardlong bean. The pods enlarge & get even longer if allowed to get ripe, and look kind of like snakes at that stage... the kids would probably have a lot of fun with them.

A yellow pole bean like "Goldmarie" would probably be a hit too, or one of the purple Romano-type pole beans. Even one of the green-podded beans like "Fortex" would be interesting, it has pods up to 11" long. Both "Goldmarie" and "Fortex" are good eaten raw, especially when fresh picked.
brighty
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all so much! What wonderful ideas. They are going to have fun discovering all the different colors and sizes and eating them right off of the pole! I'm going to have fun too! :)

Brighty
mcleod
11 years ago
IMO, the best pole bean for me and mine bar none is Louisiana Purple Pod. I've grown it is my exclusive every year pole "green" bean for over thirty years now. Productive to beat the band, disease and pest resistant and only the worst of droughts will faze it with little to no summer slump when the heat hits. The only downside is it's like okra must be picked on schedule every third day, it's that productive.
Careful of limas and kids. Raw lima beans contain linamarin which can make people ill if raw limas are eaten in large quantities, cooking destroys this compound. It's not really an issue though as I've nibbled on raw beans all my life and my four year old treats them like candy but it is there and published in the literature so use caution. Also the pod of limas is inedilbe with a stiff point that could cause problems if a child were to eat a whole pod.
If you want a really good heirloom (Louisiana Purple is also an heirloom) I like the Rattlesnake for good old fashioned bean flavor (stronger and meatier) as this was what I grew up on before switching to my purple beans. It's a bean that is about as tough as they come just not as prolific as the purple.
emcd124
11 years ago
Last year I did a bean teepee for my own preschool aged son. we planted purple podded pole beans and scarlet runners. They are different species, so they can grow side by side without crossing, so you can safely save seed from both. Both can be eaten raw off the vine (and with my 3yo son chomping away, we never actually got any into the house to cook!). Plus the flowers on the scarlet runners are GORGEOUS, and when you let them dry up to save seed for the following year, the seeds on them are large and really beautiful (black mottled with hot pink). I'll be doing the same again this year for my son's preschool class garden at school. If I werent expanding my plantings to cover our home and his school I'd offer to send you some saved seed to use, but I dont think I have enough. But I got both varieties from Seed savers exchange online store

Related Stories

SUMMER FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Summer Crops: How to Grow Beans

By Marianne Lipanovich

Grow your own beans for amazing variety and healthy, convenient produce all summer

DECORATING GUIDES Bean There, Done That: Coffee Table Alternatives

By Grace Chamia

Get creative with these ideas for salvaged and DIY pieces that will get people talking

Bean Bags: A Surprising Answer for Chic Comfort

By Shawn Gauthier

Sink into a new generation of squishy, go-anywhere seating

PETS Upload of the Day: Catwalks Keep Pets Happy in a Candy-Colored Condo

By Mitchell Parker

Shelves and wall-mounted boxes keep 2 cats active and entertained while their guardian is at work making jelly beans

HOUZZ TOURS Houzz Tour: Steel Fuses Industrial and Modern in a California Pavilion

By Mitchell Parker

Heavy on metal, this two-story addition entertains with a stargazing hot tub, a fire pole and an unusual fire feature

DECORATING GUIDES From Queasy Colors to Killer Tables: Your Worst Decorating Mistakes

Houzzers spill the beans about buying blunders, painting problems and DIY disasters

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Easy Edibles for First-Time Gardeners

By Marianne Lipanovich

Focus on these beginner-friendly vegetables, herbs, beans and salad greens to start a home farm with little fuss

HOME TECH How Smart TV Will Change Your Living Room

Get ready for the future of TV, in which your living room becomes a movie set, a communication hub and a gaming zone

GARDENING FOR BIRDS Backyard Birds: Those Nutty Nuthatches

By Habitat Network

The North American songbirds, which often perch upside down, make themselves known in the winter landscape

COASTAL STYLE How to Make Your Oceanfront Garden Thrive

By Steve Asbell

You may love the beach, but many plants don't. Learn which ones are best for your warm-weather oceanside garden getaway

Sponsored

NME Builders LLC

2 Reviews

Industry Leading General Contractors in Franklin County, OH