2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Question ? The grape vines are in a 4’ high raised bed. Been seriously thinking about tacking out some of the vines and replacing them with pole, runner or vine beans . Any ideas which beans to try that would best fit a 15’ wide area with cable wires up 5’ for the vines to cling to?
It’s easy pickens from this high bed. Zone 8b.

 

[heirloomgal]

Question ? The grape vines are in a 4’ high raised bed. Been seriously thinking about tacking out some of the vines and replacing them with pole, runner or vine beans . Any ideas which beans to try that would best fit a 15’ wide area with cable wires up 5’ for the vines to cling to?
It’s easy pickens from this high bed. Zone 8b.

So many choices for that @Shades-of-Oregon! You want fresh eating beans? Runner beans?

 

[Zeedman]

Question ? The grape vines are in a 4’ high raised bed. Been seriously thinking about tacking out some of the vines and replacing them with pole, runner or vine beans . Any ideas which beans to try that would best fit a 15’ wide area with cable wires up 5’ for the vines to cling to?
It’s easy pickens from this high bed. Zone 8b.

There are 2 possible sources of Oregon-specific growing info that might be of help;

Seed Ambassador Project. (can't verify if they are still active, no recent posts on their website.)

Peace Seedlings (formerly Dr. Alan Kapular's 'Peace Seeds'.)

One question to consider is what kind of beans you want: Snap? Shelly? Dry? In your climate, you might be able to succession plant, with common pole beans (P. vulgaris) in warm weather, and runner beans in cooler weather. Runner bean roots will even over-winter & re-sprout in Spring, in areas where the ground doesn't freeze... perennial beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Lazy - Pole Snap left photo. It was given to me as Lazy Wife but this is not the original Lazy Wife so I'm going to call it Lazy. The original Lazy Wife is a nearly round and glossy, but in the 1980's a white kidney shaped bean was marketed. The flavor of this bean was not of the orginal. Originally "Lazy Wife" had been carried by W. Atlee Burpee starting in 1885, who obtained it from Mennonite immigrants in Pennsylvania who had grown it for generations. Burpee dropped it in the early 1900's. Burpee's strain was obtained by Derek Fell, a former Burpee Seed catalog manager, from Bill Byrd of Carversville Pa, who had grown & saved seed of the original "Lazy Wife" ever since Burpee dropped it from their catalog.

Louisiana - Pole Snap. Right Photo. I have grown this bean since the early 1980's and it's one of my all time favorites pole beans. Early with green round pods with purple striping. I can often pick these at about 7 inches long.