Discover Real Green Beans
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Bush or Pole Beans?
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Most gardeners begin by choosing between compact bush-type varieties and pole beans, which grow long vines that require a trellis (see “Choose the Right Trellis for Your Beans”). As a general rule, a good bush variety will produce 5 to 6 pounds of beans per 10 foot row, but pole beans are more space-efficient, producing 8 to 9 pounds in the same amount of space. Pole types tend to produce beans for a longer period of time, too, but the trade-off is that they usually require protection from damaging insects (see “Battling Mexican Bean Beetles”). On the other hand, when bush beans become heavily infested with bean beetles or another pest, you can simply harvest the beans, pull up the plants and start a new planting. Bush beans attract fewer pests when they are mulched, but mulches can invite problems with slugs. If you live in a slug-prone area, you have yet another reason to plant pole beans.
Many gardeners think that only pole varieties deliver great flavor, but this is not necessarily true, depending on your personal taste. For example, if you want crisp, tender snap beans for eating raw or as flash-cooked finger food, you’re more likely to find your dream beans among the bush varieties. On the other hand, if your ideal green beans are slow-cooked savory pods wrapped around buttery little beans, a muscular pole variety is a better choice. An in-between category — called half-runners — combines the growth habits of bush and pole beans, though there is nothing halfway about half-runners. Most half-runners require some support, but not as much as regular pole beans. In my garden, the vines climb at least 6 feet before curving back down toward the ground. (Most pole varieties have no trouble covering an 8 foot trellis.)
Why not begin with the end in mind? Pod characteristics including shape, size and stage of maturity help determine the best ways to cook and eat green beans. I’ve sorted them into three groups below, based on the nature of the pods.
Round-podded Beans
Supermarket green beans, as well as most canned green beans, have round, fleshy pods with only the slightest hints of seeds inside. As long as you pick the beans when they’re young, most of these modern bean varieties also are stringless, so you seldom have to remove the stringy seams of the pods before eating them. Exemplary stringless bush varieties include green-podded ‘Blue Lake,’‘Maxibel’ and ‘Provider,’ as well as ‘Golden Wax’ and many other yellow wax beans, plus ‘Royal Burgundy,’ which bears purple pods. (Wax beans are yellow or purple versions of green beans that generally have a less “velvety” texture.)
If you want a round-podded pole bean, ‘Kentucky Blue’ and ‘Fortex’ are good bets. Technically, ‘Maxibel’ (bush) and ‘Fortex’ are French filet beans, which are basically stringless, round-podded beans with slender pods. Most filet beans are not very productive, but ‘Maxibel’ and ‘Fortex’ are notable exceptions.
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