don't have variety to use but a comment. with limited space, is the yield from 6-8' of drying beans the best use for that space. My mom grew a lot of beans for drying a couple of times. there was 5 kids to shell them out and we would have several pounds of beans. but a pound of beans were $.19 in the store at that time. She decided that space was more productive growing more potatoes to feed the family.

I have space for more productive vegetables too, it is just how much I can give to beans. And couple jars of dry beans is all wee need for the season. It is matter of pride - eat what you grow, it is more expensive to grow then to buy anyway)

Do you care what color the bean are? Red, black, spotted, brown, white, etc. Rattlesnake is a common grown dry pole variety, so is Scarlet Runner. We are partial to Grandma Rose Italian Pole (red speckled) and Cherokee Trail of Tears (black).

Dave

We did Rattlesnake this year and I was really impressed with the amount of beans we got. Most I let go to seed but I kept a foot or two picked for green beans and they're still going (planted at the end of March, they won't quit!). They make delicious shelly beans too. I also grew some Scarlet Runners for drying but I haven't tasted them yet...huge beans out of those, very pretty, and several of those are still going strong.

For pole dry beans:

• Brita's Foot Long (white seeded, similar to Great Northern in size)

• Dolloff (a New England native)

• some of the pole Cranberry beans

I have also grown several heirlooms with high dry seed yields. Striped Cornfield is a cranberry type, with nearly round seeds packed tightly in short pods. Sargas has seeds that start out golden yellow, and darken to orange-brown. Bosnian Pole has a high yield whether used as Romano-type snaps, or as dry beans.

Under good conditions, any of the above should produce about 2 pounds from an eight foot row.

Some pole snap beans can also produce large amounts of seed if let go (such as the KY Wonder) but the taste & texture can vary from good, to bland, to unpleasant. KY Wonder White (a.k.a. Pole 191) is a snap whose seeds are plentiful & nearly indistinguishable from Brita's Foot Long, but inferior in flavor.

Thank you, all, I will look in all the variety mentioned and decide. The color is not that important, I just want them have good taste. My problem is, I do not like dry beans much and don't understand, if they are good are not, for me they all OK to eat, but bland. But my husband loves them, and if I have to have dry beans - I want to have good ones. Now when I have names to choose from, I can look around, and may be even plant several plants of each to compare later, if i find them in the same seller.

OK, I ended up with 4: Rattlesnake,Grandma Rose Italian Pole, Scarlet Runner and Prizewinner. This site actually has them classified, very helpful!.

I am not sue how much beans I will get mixing them all together on 6 feet row this year, but bit should be colorful)

Thanks again!

We usually use a combination of black beans and kidney beans for chili as a staple. Can you grow those two beans as a dry shelling bean? I'm planning on moving my tomato and pepper plants out of the back to the front for more sun and that is going to free up a long trellis that maybe some dry shelling beans would be a good use for.

Hidatsa Shield is beautiful and popular as a pole dry bean, but I have a black bean, Seneca Cornplanter, that is phenomenal. I grow it on my maincrop corn (beans planted 3 weeks after corn), pick some green snaps, then let the plants load up.

I grow two varieties, both of which may be harder to find -- True Red Cranberry Pole Beans, and Aunt Jean's Pole Bean. The individual beans are large so you get great yields for not much space or shelling labor. Both have great flavor & texture; I use the cranberry beans in chili, and the Aunt Jean's (which looks a bit like a yin-yang bean) as a general purpose soup bean. If you're willing to try a bush dry bean, Marfax has a larger yield than other varieties. You can plant them in a 6x6 inch grid instead of in rows and get more out of a small space; these are brown beans that I use as a baked bean. I find the skins a bit tough on the scarlet runners, though they are pretty. I haven't tried the others you mentioned.

True Red Cranberry is a good dry bean, with really beautiful seeds, and flavor that reminds me of Red Kidney. It has been quite a few years since I grew it last, so thanks for the reminder. The yield was just OK for me, though.

"OK, I ended up with 4: Rattlesnake,Grandma Rose Italian Pole, Scarlet Runner and Prizewinner."

Prizewinner is a named variety of runner bean; Scarlet Runner is often used as a generic name for red-flowered runner beans. The two are very similar (you might not even be able to tell the difference) so you may want to grow only one of them. There is also an heirloom runner bean, Insuk's Wang Kong, grown by many on this forum (self included) that makes a good dry bean; there are some good threads about it on this forum, and the original source is a GW member. If you would like to try it, Galinas, just send me a PM.

I think that beans are worth growing to eat when they are green, then when I cannot keep up with their production, I leave them on the vine to mature, and shell them. I LOVE the taste of Cherokee Trail of Tears, and they produce nice black beans. Purple Peacock is extremely productive and tastes ok too.

Linda

Interesting. I have a strain called Seneca Cornplanter that is said to be very similar to those two strains. It was grown by Tutelo tribes in VA. Vigorous vines, slightly hairy pods, full of glossy black beans.

Hairy pods??? Eeeeooow! {LOL} They don't sound all that good for green beans......

Linda