What are your favorite pole beans?

[CathyA]

There's a bean forum I occasionally visit and I have to say there are alot of beans out there I've never tried. I guess I just stick with the ones that are proven winners for me. The 2 I like the most are Blue Lake 274 (for later picking) and Kentucky Blue for earlier picking.
I've tried some others, but none of them do well. I grew some purple ones once and they turn green when cooked! (as do the purple peppers). What a rip-off! haha

Since I have troubles leaning over, I love vertical growing. I grow my pole beans up a galvanized electrical conduit trellis, covered with netting and grow my cucs up an old swing set.
So.....what are your favorite pole bean varieties?

[flowerseverywhere]

I like the purple because I can see them more easily to pick. One day I gave a bag to a friend and she called me alarmed because they had turned green when she cooked them. We both had a good laugh. I also like the flavor of purple lagonier. I agree that Kentucky blue and Blue lakes are good growers and good eating. Yellow pole beans are also easy to see but I prefer the flavor of the green. I have a metal frame that I plant around the edges of and the beans love to climb up. Also, the rabbits seem to love the bush bean plants but don't bother the pole bean plants nearly as much.

You can find tall sugar snap and regular peas and although the peas are pretty labor intensive I like what I get from the plants.

Now tomatoes, that is a subject dear to my heart. I grow my own seedlings and have great success with Black Krim, Cherokee purple, Taxi (bright yellow of course),Kellog's breakfast, Black cherry, roma, Rutgers and Brandywine. The colors in a salad are just fabulous and the taste!

[Gina]

I now only grow bush beans (esp Romanos) because of our strong winds, but pole beans I like are Blue Lake and Romano. Romano, bush or pole, is hands-down my favorite bean. :)

[CathyA]

I really like Romano beans too! They're so meaty.
I tried growing heirloom tomatoes recently and the rabbits loved them! .........along with all the other diseases. So now I just grow Rutgers. They are standards, but seem pretty hardy.
I haven't been having much luck with snow peas lately. I have to battle the mice for them. I've learned that if I presprout the snow peas before I plant them, it helps alot.
I do feel like the purple varieties of things should mention that they turn green with heat. I wonder why that happens. Almost seems like they must have purple dye that gets washed away. haha

[Charity]

I had great luck with Romano Pole Beans. The flavor was fantastic and the yields were great as well.

[Merski]

BIL grew Gold of Bacau pole beans which are edible pods and even when the beans get big inside you can still eat the pod! We're going to try them this year.

[Greg44]

Blue Lake - I spend many a Summer days stringing, then picking Pole Beans -- it was what we did as kids. If we were too short to pick beans, we stood on our buckets to pick the beans up by the wires. The season lasted about 6 weeks if I remembered. We bought our school clothes with the money we earned. We weren't allowed to go to the fair and just "blow it"

We now buy our beans from a local farmer that grows/picks/washes/snips and cuts them -- we take them home to can.
We have now concluded that quarts are too big for our shrinking family - will now can pints.

[puglogic]

I love romanos too. I'm getting jiggy with the beans this year and am planting these:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6802-red-noodle.aspx
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6614-fortex.aspx

[CathyA]

At least they've said that the burgundy color fades with cooking. Those Fortex look really good too.
Do you think that the pole Romanos taste just as good as the bush Romanos?

[spiderfolks]

This year I want to focus primarily on the kinds that are stringless. I canned many jars of beans last season, and found the strings to be a nuisance.

[CathyA]

I've grown green beans for many years, and haven't really noticed many strings. What varieties have you been growing spiderfolks?

[Amaranth]

More fun bean choices:
http://www.vermontbean.com/
http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi

[daisy]

Here in east Texas, Kentucky Wonder is one of the best performers for me. You can pick it while small for stringless snap beans or you can let it get a little larger for a Romano-type bean. In addition to my usual Kentucky Wonder, I am trying Lazy Wife beans because the name amused me. :)