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.

Leigh First, there's probably no way to know what beans are bush and what beans are climbers without knowing the varieties. I also suspect that if you've plant them in rows, they'll cross pollinate. That's okay, though you won't be able to save the ones you like best if they're no longer true to the ones you planted. You said you'd planted them but don't have room for bush beans. You must mean you started them inside? Can you contact the bean distributor and ask what varieties of beans are in the package? That would give you a good place to start if you can find that information. Anyway, it sounds like you'll have fun with all those beans! Since you don't know which are bush and which are climbers, if you can't quickly ID them, I'd plant them all under a trellis and let the tall ones climb!

If you installed metal t-posts, you could attach Johnny's Hortonova trellis to the T-posts and have a good strong support for your pole beans. You'll have a stronger set-up if you support some of the T-posts front and back, especially posts at end of rows. Re-bars pounded into ground right up against T-posts will do the trick and help prevent T-posts from leaning/falling over in a storm. I've used the Hortonova netting and have been pleased with it. Johnny's also have it in smaller length, plus a similar product called Trellinet . I like the 6 x 6 inch holes that are large enough for my hands when harvesting. (Hortonova/Trellinet's width = your installation's height.) Home D. has T-posts (garden Dept.) and re-bars (w/cement and the like). You'll need a small sledgehammer (cement dept), and cable ties (electrical dept) for attaching the netting to the posts.

I like the roma, or romano, variety that my Dad got me onto years ago. They are a flat stringless bean that to me have the very best flavor. "Romano beans are also known as 'Italian string beans' or 'Italian pole beans' or 'Italian flat beans'. They're broader than "every day green beans" and have flat pods. They cook in a flash. And they're more tender, more velvety, more green-tasting, more alive-tasting than other beans." They come in bush or pole form. I prefer growing the bush form in my small garden, but the pole form is most often offered in stores where they sell veggie seeds. Here is a link that might be useful: About romanos