My favorite pole bean always was 'Fortex'. I was watching The Victory Garden the other day and they were showing pole beans and that is the one they were growing, too. I think I ordered it from Johnny's Seeds - I was working out of town and have done minimal vegetable gardening the past few years so I just put in bush beans this year. But I want Fortex again next year. :) Does anybody have a yellow pole bean they recommend?

Mine is Fortex, too.

It is a pole bean so has heavier production than bush beans. Each pod is eight inches long or longer, so each pod helps provide the heavy production. It is tender AND stringless even when very large.

For just good old snap bean eating, it seems to be the best one with all the best characteristics.

If you'll go to the bean forum, you'll find all kinds of bean recommendations, when to plant, fertilization, spacing, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: GW Forum, Beans, Peas, & Other Legumes

Fortex. It is the most commonly recommended each time this question comes up here or on the Beans Forum.

Dave

I have had luck with blue lake stringless and kentucky wonder.
This year I am doing a tri-colored pole bean packet from Renee's seeds. They have a yellow and purple pole (which i didn't think existed) so I will let you all know if and when they grow up and how they do.

I am trying a new pole bean this year called Aunt Ida's Pole Bean. Have any of you tried this one?

I just started growing pole beans a few years ago. So I'm still "getting my feet wet." I'm trying Fortex for the first time this year. So I can't speak for them yet. Varieties I've tried & liked: Kentucky Wonders (Japanese beetle magnet though,) Cherokee Trail of Tears & Rattlesnake Poles.

I like the tenderness and taste of Blue Lake. Its drawback is being too tender for freezing.

Blue lake and kentucy wonder are two that are doing great for me. I have bush type and yardlongs
but they are not producing as much az BL and KW. Having heard so much about FORTEX,
I will try that next year. I also have purple hyacinth. Although it produces lots of beens(purple flat like snow peas, less than 2" long)but I mainly like them for their beauty and flowers.

Regarding the earlier question about a yellow pole bean: a variety I've seen in garden center racks and some seed catalogs is "Meraviglia di Venezia" a.k.a. Marvel of Venice. I haven't tried it myself though.

I am on a quest for a delicious bean too. I intend to try Fortext next year. THIS year, I am growing Kentucky Wonder for the first time and my so-far favorite Louisiana Purple Pole. The LPP is positively delicious and a beautiful plant too. BUT, in the high heat of our summer, it stops producing. I think the blooms fall off. The Kentucky Wonder is still producing heavily, but, in my opinion, it is not as tasty as the LPP. Still, pretty good beans through the summer are better than none at all.

Anybody grow Fortex in the Deep South? Can you comment on how it does in our heat?

Also, does anyone know of a delicious BUSH bean? I tried Jade and Dragons Tongue this year. Pulled them up and composted the Jades. DT wasn't much better, but I did like the texture.

donnab

All beans will decrease production in high heat -- the blossoms drop off the plants. It's been awfully hot and humid here, and Fortex production HAS slowed lately, though I see a fresh spate of them I need to pick.

Mine started out gorgeous and really productive, and then the dratted Japanese beetles invaded them. I kept them picked off as much as I could, but they certainly can make your bean leaves look ragged and holey. At any rate, I'm going to keep them going, keep them picked as needed, watered, and see if production picks back up in the cooler weather as it's reputed to do. I was able to freeze about a half-year's worth of meals with what I've already picked and hope to get another half-year's worth later on.

OTOH, limas and cowpeas LOVE the heat and humidity, in my experience. I have those growing, too, so maybe with them, the Fortexes, and the Italian green pole beans, we'll have a nice freezer full of beans.

Best pole bean - Emerite. Just an opinion, but I think Fortex is overrated. Lots of hype, little taste.
My taste buds, however, have been around for an awfully long time.

I'm trying kentucky wonder for the 2nd time this year. Along with some scarlett runner beans, and a couple asparagus beans. Last year didn't work so well, since they were supposed to climb up my corn stalks, but they pulled them over instead. Anyway, after reading this thread I just had to try some Fortex. I don't like the name, but I read about them, and was sold. Apparently they don't get those strings, even if you pick them late. And I'm always late with everything. So I ordered some seeds today. I may not get very many, since I'm getting a late start. But at least I'll know if I like them for next year.

Italian Romano Pole Beans can be excellent, and offer a taste and texture that is different from the standard beans.

The Fortex is my favorite also. You can eat them raw right off the vine.

Do any of the standard garden store seed companies offer Fortex? Or do you have to order it?

I couldn't find Fortex anywhere, so I ordered it online from Vermont Bean Seed Co. It was an impulse buy after reading all the raves on the Beans & Peas Forum, and I ended up paying a ridiculous amount of postage for one packet of seeds. But I got the Fortex, and planted it along with Kentucky Wonder, which has been my favorite bean for years and years. I love the taste of KW (and I eat them raw off the vine, too).

Planted later than usual this year, the bean plants are still small. But I have to say the Fortex plants look spindly compared with the Kentucky Wonders. This may change, of course, but right now they look like the underdog.

Another good one is Meralda which is a flat type bean but very tender. You can get that one from Renee's Seeds. I believe I ordered Fortex from Johnny's seeds. I don't know that I have seen them in the stores.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fortex

Pinto snaps from parchman/lockwood,these are the best tasting Ive ever had,I think imho pinto snaps are more flavorful..

This year I'm mostly going with Painted Lady Runner Beans... they were delicious, prolific, huge, and froze really well. They also attract lots of bees, butterflies, and even hummingbirds, and are so pretty!

Also planted Trionfo Violetto again. Yields were a bit low last year, but they were in a shady spot. Gorgeous purple-leaved plants with lavender flowers (yes, I like a pretty garden as well a tasty one) and delicious, tender beans.

I grew Fortex last year and liked it, although I think Trionfo Violetto he (optional):

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I'm not sure there is a bad pole bean, though production varies from year to year. Love the wide variety of Pole Beans. I'm gonna grow 6 types in one big chaotic mess, not sure there is any negative to that, but will not save seeds.

Funny, my older relatives went against the old traditions of cooking
beans for a very long time, but these heirloom beans taste great cooked
soft, hardly completely tasteless like commercial style green bean.

Fortex is excellent, but I've never gotten the plants to grow strong, but still produces quality beans until frost. Always out produced by other types during the summer.

Trionfo Violetto is a very nice purple.

Rattlesnake is a very nice dependable bean.

Greasy Beans are a bit different and taste very good cooked soft.

Heirlooms.org "Non Tough Half Runner" are simply a perfect classic green bean in every sense, also perfect for a family that does not want "weird" green beans.

Rattlesnake looks promising to me. I've only grown it in the shade, though (so it didn't do optimally, but I still got some beans). I'm excited to try it with more sun one of these days.

The Japanese Beetles seem to really like Rattlesnake around here so that is what I am growing for them as a trap crop to keep them off of my bush beans. I'd like to try Emerite sometime as I hear it it a good one but not many online vendors offer it. I grew Fortex side by side with Rattlesnake a couple times and was not very impressed with the spindly, thin plants and low production compared to Rattlesnake but the beans were nice.

I like most all pole beans, but I am partial to Algarve, which is early, vigorous and productive. The stringless and very tasty beans go about an inch wide and almost a foot long.

There are a lot of ways to go with this question, depending upon geographical region, individual preferences, and how the beans will be used.

If you want green stringless snaps, both Emerite and Fortex are outstanding. Of the two, Fortex is sweeter & more delicious raw; but the long pods are very susceptible to wind bruising, so it needs some shelter from the wind for best results. Emerite is shorter, firmer, and less sweet... but the straight, smooth pods make it one of the best for canning. In my climate, Emerite has had consistently better yields than Fortex. Both varieties are very slow to develop strings, and are outstanding frozen.

In warmer climates, Rattlesnake has proven to be a better performer. Like the two above, it is round podded. And although I have not grown any of the half runner beans, they too do well in warmer climates, and some who grow them speak highly of their flavor.

If you prefer your beans to be richly flavored, the old fashioned Kentucky Wonder is still hard to beat. Yes, they need to be picked young before strings develop, but given that, they are tender & delicious - and if kept picked, the yield can be huge.

Some of the flat Romano beans are also richly flavored... and a few of those (such as Early Riser) have short DTM's. Goldmarie is a pole Romano-type wax bean, with very sweet, very long pods (to 10-11") - and a very short DTM. There are many Romano-type heirlooms, some with an almost pea-like sweetness, and some with the benefit of good shelly beans if let go to maturity. Bosnian Pole is one of those.

I've grown quite a few purple-podded beans, and have found little to distinguish them other than their color. The only exception to that was an heirloom (Czechoslovakian) which far surpassed all of my other beans in yield, in a hotter than normal year. (Disclaimer: "hotter than normal" here is an extended period in the 90's F.)

In cooler climates (such as the coastal regions), runner beans can far out-perform regular beans as snaps. Their meaty texture can take some getting used to, but they are sweet, and freeze well. The best varieties are from the U.K., which has bred runner beans extensively; but those varieties can be hard to find in the U.S. Any runner bean, though, will make good snaps if picked very young... even Scarlet Runner.

The discussion has so far revolved around beans used as snaps; but there are many other pole beans best used as either shellies (shelled out as ripe beans) or full beans (eaten pod & all when the beans inside have reached full size). IMO, those beans are one of the most rewarding vegetables a gardener can grow, because in most regions, the only way to experience them is to grow them yourself... but that is a topic probably best covered in a different thread.

As already mentioned, there are numerous other bean discussions here on the Bean, Pea, and Legume Forum.

My favorite is Kentucky Blue - a cross between Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake. Stringless and very productive. Fortex runs a close 2nd.

I have planted Rattlesnake along a row of sweet corn for sort of a 2 sisters arrangement.

OkieHU