True Heirloom Romano Pole Beans
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9 years ago
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drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Do pole beans taste better than bush beans?
Comments (12)I think your limitations in space warrant you starting with pole beans. The above postings are right in that everyone has their own taste. I started with strictly pole beans & have some experience with them. "Emerite" is the best pole filet bean, yields are very good and early in my northeast PA garden (get from Pinetree Garden Seeds). I also like the purple-pdded varietes, and have great luck with "Trionfo Violetto" (get them from Pinetree Garden Seeds). I am also heavy shell bean grower/eater. I grow "Wren's Egg" (from Heirloom Seeds), "True Cranberry" (from Seed Savers Exchange), and when i can find them cannellini and borlotto pole beans (Gourmet Seeds International). I also grow bush beans for shelling & drying, "Dutch Brown", "Flagrano" flageolet (the most tasty shell bean in my opinion), and "Black Turtle" beans, which have amazing yields for cuban black bean soup. For recipes, see the thread here called "How do you cook your beans?" Folks have posted some nice ones there. Well this should get you going. Happy gardening! Here is a link that might be useful: Pinetree Garden Seeds, perfect for small gardens...See MoreBush Beans vs's Pole Beans
Comments (9)My own preferences are much the same as Hemnancy's; I prefer pole beans for their size, flavor, and yield... and for the enormous variation available in heirloom varieties. They require more space, but that is not an issue for me. Bush beans, however, have their advantages too... so sometimes (preferences aside) it's a question of which type is most suitable for the location & the intended purpose. It's also worth noting that beans should be considered for more than just snaps. Bush beans Advantages: - Easy to plant, require no support. - They mature more quickly. This makes them better suited for short-season areas, for late planting, and when they will be grown early or late as part of a succession planting. - Generally bear all-at-once, so good if grown for canning in large batches, especially with limited space. - Low profile, so better suited for high-wind areas. - Most popular dry beans are bush varieties. - More wax bean varieties available commercially as bush than as pole. Disadvantages: - Less suitable for kitchen gardens, where a prolonged harvest is preferable. Succession planting every few weeks can overcome this, if space is available to do so. - More vulnerable to damage by slugs and rodents. - Lower yield.* - Generally smaller pod size. - Fewer cultivars available for use as shellies. - Harvest can be uncomfortable, due to constant bending. Pole beans Advantages: - Higher yield*, sometimes enormous. - Generally larger pods as snaps, so less cutting involved for canning. - More varieties available for shellies, including most of the larger-seeded. - Prolonged harvest, good for fresh eating over a long period. Some varieties, though, will have large flushes in a relatively short period of time. - Pods are higher, making them easy to see & pick, with minimal bending. - Less damage from rodents, snails, & crawling insects. Disadvantages: - Require erecting a pole/trellis. Not too tough for a 20-foot row, but 500 feet of trellis can be a chore. - Take longer to bear, making them less suitable for short season areas. (There are, however, fast-maturing varieties like "Goldmarie" and "Early Riser"). - Except for very long-season areas, they occupy the ground for the entire season, so not suitable for succession planting. - Not good for high-wind areas, where poles & vines may be snapped. - While the over-all yield is very high, the yield-per-plant for a given period may be relatively low, so smaller daily pickings. This is only an issue where space is limited. - Few varieties commercially available for dry beans (but many heirlooms). I have also observed that many bean diseases are either caused or aggravated by soil being splashed on the leaves; bush beans seem to be more vulnerable to this. I used the (*) for yield, because with different planting strategies, either bush or pole can be high-yielding: - Pole varieties have a higher yield per plant, and often the highest yield per row foot... but much of this advantage is lost with multiple rows, because of the greater row spacing required due to shading. They are at their best if planted in a single row, at the North side of the garden. My largest yield per row by far was from a row of "Pole 191" snap beans. - Bush varieties, while yielding less per plant, can be spaced more closely... and since shade is not an issue, the rows can be closer together as well. Succession planting can also help overcome the yield gap, since it allows bush beans to time-share a given space with another crop. I think that the best bean strategy is a single row of pole beans on the North side - with a row or two of bush beans directly adjacent on the South side - so as to form one wide row. This gives the best of both worlds, in a relatively small space. Those pole beans, by the way, can include limas or yardlong beans. As for strings, I think there is little difference; there are both pole beans & bush beans, with- and without strings. However, since most breeding going on now is for bush beans, there will eventually be more stringless varieties available as bush. I don't necessarily see "stringlessness" as an advantage, since many varieties that develop strings are stringless when picked young, and have outstanding flavor. "Kentucky Wonder" is a great example of this. Most of the new bush varieties, while stringless, are of the petite style now popular in Europe... takes a lot of picking to get a basket full. No thank you. Give me the 11" pods of "Fortex", or the long pods of "Goldmarie" or "Garafal Oro", any day....See More'Hilda' Romano Pole beans
Comments (17)Hello Everyone, For those that requested seed, I will get your seed in the mail this next week. Altho most of you won't need them for a few weeks. Here is a picture of my Helda Romano Pole Beans I planted them February 1st. They are starting to climb at this time. Normally they take 50 to 60 days before I get my first mess. I usually pick them when they get about 6 inches long for my first mess. But the weather this year we can expect almost anything. The weather is in the low eighties at this time, so they should make sometime in March. Happy gardening to all, Luther...See MoreHeirloom Pole Bean Question
Comments (14)George, That's basically what I needed, a rough idea about weight, productiveness, and longevity. Looking at the math is making me wish I was able to return to my old job. I already knew that selling the pole beans even for twice what one would sell tomatos was going to be labor intensive. I've got time to think this over, but like I said, I knew this wasn't going to be a very lucrative money making operation. I've eaten pole beans before and agree with what you say about quality. There's something else that most folks don't know about green beans, specifically the canned ones. We know that large food growing companies must grow bush beans so the harvesting machines can swoop them up. There was a woman who went to a church I used to go to that had worked in a canning factory in California. She told me that when the harvesting machines cut and picked up the bean bushes, they also picked up anything that happened to be attached. From there in the canning plant, beans would be sorted and "picked over". After that, the beans were placed in a solution to dissolve anything that adhered to them, some of which was described as being bits and pieces of some pretty disgusting stuff. Then the beans were apparently rinsed and canned. I don't know for sure if all this is true, but to this day, the way she described the process, I haven't been able to bring myself to eat another can of green beans. Since then I've sampled green beans in the produce section of stores and found they taste like cardboard. And "freshness"? Forget it! Well, whether I sell the pole beans or not, I've planted a LOT of them, and will hopefully have enough for fresh eating and want to can enough to last through this next winter and the following one since I don't know what my health is going to do. Thanks for the info George. This was very helpful. One way or another, we'll have food for the table and some good healthy and TASTY fresh food ahead of us this summer, plus some to put by "Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise". Barbara...See Moregalina
9 years agozeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
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9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agofignut
9 years agozeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
9 years agorobert567
5 years ago
Amy Finlay
5 years ago
Sherry8aNorthAL
5 years agoSherry8aNorthAL
5 years agofignut
5 years agoSherry8aNorthAL
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5 years agoAmy Finlay
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