Beans glorious beans

[Deltawhiskey]

Tired of stringless runners that are still stringy, I planted climbing French beans, Sutton’s Isabel this year. Wow. 12 plants in a 6x4 raised bed produced so many beans that we couldn’t eat them all and I quickly ran out of freezer space. I made lots of friends in the neighbourhood as they also enjoyed the bounty. Now, although I live in the warmer south I am still picking them and they are still flowering! Guess what I am planting next year?

David

[Bren In Pots]

I’m another who’s going over to climbing french beans, this year I only grew 8 Scarlet emperor runners the rest were Blauhilde beans. They have purple pods that cook up green and not s string in sight.

[Babru]

Runners grow really well here (lots of rain), I'm not sure if I'd get such a good crop from french beans.

I grew some Tender Star this year, which are a runner/french cross. The pods were much less coarse and still lots of them, I'm growing them again next year.

Not so easy to germinate though, had a few failures, but there are loads in the packet so it's not a problem.

What I'd really, really like, is to find a variety that starts cropping a bit earlier.