I prefer pole beans for ease of harvest and because when I use cattle panel secured to t posts for the trellis I can take up the whole batch when it starts to get rainy and let them finish drying in the barns. I simply cut them off at the bottom.
I did not know, however, that pole beans take longer to mature so I might try bush beans also this year and compare my results.
Pole beans because they climb my corn and sunflowers. Bush beans would just get shaded out, the little slackers! It's also nice that they seem to produce more bean-mass per plant.
Another vote for pole beans from another pole bean lover. When I was kid I used to have to pick 100' rows of bush beans so maybe that's why? We used to have to pick lowbush blueberries too, but that was a lot more fun. Having said that, every time we stumbled upon high bush blueberries I was on them. Guess I just like not having to be bent down to harvest.
Pole...I did 111 quarts last year in an area of 12 by 24. No beans this, I alternate my crops. I also alternate the garden area, one part for veggies, the other for cover crop (green manure.)
I think pole beans seem more reliable here where rabbits are constantly nibbling things. Especially runner beans—I have not seen any nibbling so far. Maybe they have more toxins in their foliage. Many a bush bean has been chopped off, but many are resilient enough to regrow and make new beans. I think that in general, runner beans are my preferred bean from now on, though.
I had to rely on childhood memories for this one.
I remember Dad planting half-runners almost exclusively. So I'm going with only able to grow pole beans.
I don't like either one. I have lots of pole beans, but the vines always get so giant and I get tired of building and moving those big trellises each year. I don't like stooping over to pick bush beans for snaps and it's hard to mature them for dry use or seed because in my climate they usually get knocked down and splashed with mud during storms which leads to lots of rot and mold.
I've been working for years on a solution in what I call semi-runner beans. They do climb which keeps them safe from storms but only to around four to six feet tall, so trellising is much easier than with the ten footers. I have several but the best are some pinto beans that came originally form the grocery store, a bean with the same color and markings as pinto but smaller and more round that came from some Joseph Lofthouse seeds and some off-types beans that came from an old heirloom called Refugee that I got from Monticello. Refugee and it's off-types have my favorite growth habit in that they only get about four feet tall, but they have lots of branches instead of one single vine, unfortunately they are not overly productive.
Anyway, I guess my vote goes basically to pole beans.
I mistakenly purchased pole beans and a few bush beans, and have never grown the pole variety, I'm guessing they will be easier to harvest, time will tell, so for now I choose pole beans.
Post by:autobot
Once upon a time there were three bears. And they were visted by a golden haired tiny ad:
![[Logo]](/templates/default/mobile/images/mobile-permies-2015.png)
