Blue Lake Pole is normally a very good bean for me and they will be one of my main bean crops this year. I didn't have seeds for Blue Lake pole last year but I planted Blue Lake Bush and they produced very well, but some of the beans touched the ground and the pill bugs would eat on the bean. Maybe your seeds were not really pole beans, because mistakes do happen.

I planted several pole beans and was well satisfied with Rattlesnake. I don't like Kentucky Wonder but the Japanese Beetles love them. LOL I think the eastern part of the State is really the only Oklahoma area bothered by JBs (so far).

I usually only plant bush beans in Spring and they will be the first bean crop to come in. By the time they are gone, the poles will be producing and produce until a freeze.

Dawn gave me a few purple podded pole beans which I planted last year. I only planted them to save the seed, but in one of the worst spots in my garden they did pretty well. I saved the seed then bought a couple more purple types to try this year. They would be worth growing just for the beauty of the plant.

I grow a pole that originally came from George 'macmex' that we like and it is always my earliest pole bean to produce. He is a seed saver, so maybe he will see this and let us know of he is selling seed from that kind this year.

I normally prefer greasy beans, but this year I am planting a lot of different kinds because I have the seed and I want a lot of beans this year. I will have yellow, purple pod, speckled, greasy, green, and at least one bush bean which will probably be a flat podded type. It's the year of the bean in my garden.

Hope you find a vigorous climber for your trellis. I love pole beans.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Carol,

Remind me which bean that was. At the moment I can't recall.

I have been so busy that I haven't been on the forum very much.

George

Hi Sgt Karl,

Like Carol, I'm inclined to think the seed you purchased was incorrectly packaged and you got a bush bean if it didn't try to climb at all, or a half-runner if it kinda sorta climbed but then sort of pooped out and didn't do much after that.

Most standard pole beans will grow and produce well here. Both Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder are well-adapted and produce well all over the country.

Rattlesnake is an outstanding one because it tolerates heat better than most pole beans.

If you want to grow beautiful and tasty purple podded beans then Blue Coco, Purple Trionfo Violetto and Purple Podded Bean (from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) all have produced well for me here in Oklahoma.

Marvel of Venice is a beautiful yellow-podded pole bean that I grow every year, and Garrafal d'Oro is a Romano type pole bean that always does well here.

Other standard pole beans that I'm growing here this year are Cherokee Greasy, Jembo Polish, Jeminez, North Carolina Speckled Greasy Cut Short and Red Striped Greasy.

For runner beans I'm growing Insuk's Wang Kong (because I need something challenging every year) and Scarlet Runner Bean.

And, in the category of 'what's new?' I'm growing one called Tenderstar that is a cross between a runner bean and a regular pole bean.

Pole beans produce well here most years, although high summer temperatures can make the drop blooms for a while without having any beans develop. If you keep the watered through the worst of the heat, they'll bloom and produce fine in the late summer or fall after temperatures moderate.

George, I don't remember which one Carol is talking about, but am inclined to think it is a greasy been if that helps you narrow it down any.

Dawn

I was going to suggest Rattlesnake but I see Dawn beat me to it. It's a good one.

OK, I just looked it up. I sent Carol a sample of Ruth Bible Pole bean in 2009. That's a brown seeded bean, and very good. But I do vaguely remember sending her a greasy. Was it Old Timey Long Cut Greasy? That's a good one too. It's white seeded.

Sgt Karl, I really like the old fashioned string beans (a.k.a. tender podded beans.) They develop strings. But the pods, unlike most stringless varieties, stay tender for a LONG time. I grow Tennessee Cutshort every year, which is an old fashioned string bean.

Here's a thread on some good beans. Some time ago I had my "personal secretary" hunt down the link, for me, and I saved it ;)

George

Here is a link that might be useful: beans for Oklahoma

George, It is the Old Timey Long Cut Greasy that we like so much. That aren't terrible consistent in size, but they are early and very good.

And just for the record George, Al is eating beans and cornbread right now with a sprinkling of chili powder that I made from the Frank's Thai pepper that I got from you. I think he eats it everyday. Thanks for that one also.

George, Your personal secretary is amazing, no? lol lol lol

Carol, I don't know how you and I could forget Old Timey Long Cut Greasy.

The names of O-P beans are just as interesting as the names of O-P tomatoes, but I have a harder time remembering them for some reason.

Dawn

Dear Amazing Secretary Dawn,

I always remember Greasy, Tennessee, and Old Timey but I never get them in the right order. I'm blaming mine on age but you don't qualify. LOL

I saved back a few from year before last, but I didn't save any more seed last year. I think I have enough to grow out, but it will be hard not to eat them.

I had lots of volunteer beans in my garden last year. A few came up in a good place but most did not. I moved the 'did nots' over to the others and put a very large CRW cage over them. They were not in a perfect circle (nor a perfect place) but they all found their way up the 6 foot cage. Everyone that came into my garden commented on that bean tower. They weren't even the same kind of beans, but most were Rattlesnake. Since it was not a planned crop, and the cage wasn't secured very well, it fell over a couple of times but it just kept producing. I think I had beans in 5 different places last year, including two big tree pots with tomato cages in them, and one was in the yard rather than the garden. I knew it was time to start putting them in the freezer when Al watched me bring a bag full into the house, and said, "I just can't eat green beans again today." LOL

I plan to have a 16 foot cattle panel, another trellis that about 9 feet long and 8 feet tall, and all of the large tomato cages that I can spare to grow pole beans. The poor place where I grew the purple pods last year, now has a raised bed and plenty of sunshine since the storm took my tree down.

We enjoyed all of the different beans more than we did the cowpeas, so I don't know if I will plant them this year. We will have snow peas, and Sugar Snaps in the early season, then beans of many colors later.

Thank you all for your responses. Sometimes you can't see the most obvious answer that is right in front of you. They were bush beans, well hopefully I will get some in the correct seed packets this year. I am going to try Blue Lake, Rattlesnake, Tennessee Cutshort and a purple bean. Thank you again.

Karl

Carol,

I'm growing North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cut Short (from Remy's Sample Seeds website) this year for the first time and, with my poor memory, can you imagine how I'll butcher the name this summer? I'll likely call it by some combination of the right words, but mangled up in the wrong order like "North Carolina Speckled Greasy Short Long Cut Greasy" or something. Maybe I'll just refer to it as North Carolina and no one will know what I mean except me.

I qualify more and more for the 'old age' designation every year. If you don't watch out, I'll catch up with you.

I love cowpeas, but the rest of my family doesn't love them as much as I do. It likely is because I grew up in a gardening family that raised cowpeas and ate them a lot growing up. During the summer months we have too many fresh green beans and do get tired of them at times but never too many cowpeas. I would grow more cowpeas if they'd shell themselves, but since I have to sit and shell every last one of them, I don't raise more than I am willing to shell.

Also, there's a purple hull pea farm in Thackerville that sells them by the bushel. I always tell myself that if my cowpeas fail I will just buy a bushel from them, but I never have. I just keep sowing succession crops until I get enough cowpeas to make me happy. Last fall the cowpeas produced until well after the first freeze (I did cover them up with row cover on potentially freezing nights) and put up so many of them that I still have some in the freezer. It has been quite a while since we have had enough cowpeas frozen to get us through the winter. We still have green beans in the freezer too because no one in my family wants to eat them more than 2 or 3 times per week (except me).

This year I am planning to make some dilly beans, which is something I normally don't make because it means I might not have as many beans in the freezer. Since I don't have to plant as many tomatoes for canning this year, I have more room to plant extra beans for canning.

Karl, We have some real bean lovers here, so you're in good company.

Dawn

You've already made your list, but an FYI for later. Kentucky Wonder and Missouri Wonder Pole beans were my favorite beans for years. Then the Japanese Beetles arrived and they love them as much as I do. So I planted several other types and let the KW be a trap crop. Blue Lake and Cherokee Stripe (from George) do well and don't attract them as much.

Dorothy, that was Cherokee Striped Cornhill, a truly delicious pole bean which, for some reason, has been reluctant to flower for me in my garden. Does it do well for you? That's a bean with some great historical depth to it.

Anyone want to try Cherokee Striped Cornhill, Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean or Cooper's Running , contact me. I need to get them grown out.

George

George, yes, the Cherokee Striped Cornhill has done well for me and we love the flavor.

We also really like the Roma types, both bush and pole.