I used to grow Scarlet Runner Beans up the side of my garage. They grew like crazy, often up onto the roof. They are not the best eating bean but they're quite nice if you pick them really young, less than 1/2" wide in the pod.

There's an heirloom variety called Rattlesnake that's supposed to be a good pole grower and tasty beans. I always wanted to try them but I don't have anywhere to put them anymore.

The ones I've planted are stringless Blue Lake. I'll hope for the best this year.

Thanks everyone =:)

It's my first year trying pole beans...I bought them before I read that they take longer than bush beans. Grrrr...but I've had great success in the past with scarlet runner beans. Last summer was so rainy that it wasn't even worth having the bush beans...I'm hoping that we can't possibly have that bad of a summer 2 years in a row, and that the beans-both kinds-will be a success this year. Actually, I'm hoping that the pole beans just make it up the supports and make a teepee fort for the grandkids--I don't even care at this point if I get beans.

You might also consider inoculating the seeds at planting time with legume inoculant. There are differing opinions about how necessary it is, but I did once or twice and had good beans and peas from it. It's not expensive to buy the powder.

I've now done a little research into legume inoculant, thanks to your post, northspruce. It's a little late for me, as mine are long since planted. But although I can find many claims for increased production, I can't find anything about speeding up production. I'm not sure anything will compensate for lack of sun and warmth or a short season.

No luck here, south of Calgary for pole beans, I have given up. Cheryl

I've grown pole beans for a few years now. Mine have gotten off to a slow start this year. The ones that did germinate are only about 3" tall. I just replanted (reseeded) the ones that didn't germinate yesterday.

Pole beans that have done well for me in the past are: Cherokee Trail of Tears, Kentucky Wonders, Lazy House Wife and Case Knife.

We usually grow Scarlet runners for ornamental value (and good for compost) and have had good success with them even saving seed for successive years. I haven't yet planted any this year because it's been so wet and cool and beans don't do well until the soil is warm. Some years we have planted until late in June altho seed was not always mature enough to save but we could have eaten the beans.

Pole beans are the only beans I will grow now. I get much better production from them. The the only time I didn't have luck, was when I was experiencing with southern varieities such as pretzel bean. Now, I intentionally only plant varieties that are not known for primarily growing in southern climates. I guess anything that is considered a cowpea would have a hard time growing here. I haven't yet had luck growing rattlesnake beans here, but am trying them again this year to see what happens. Fingers crossed.

I usually plant scarlet runner beans every year. Last year was futile with unexpected frost July 1st. Mine are only 3-4 inches tall but I know they will take off when they are ready..Jean

Well, it's been 8 weeks. My pole beans are about 5 feet high with a small amount of blossoms. Anybody have an idea how long it'll take before I get beans? I'm wondering if the season will be long enough.

How's everyone else's doing so far?

Lynn ~ My pole beans are way over the supports which are about 7 feet I think and have bloomed. Don't know if they have baby beans yet but Painter-Man may have pulled them off. He has been eating the leaves all season, the brat! I'll see if I can get a good pic and post it. :)

I looked today and some are ready for picking.
After flowering it can go fast...perhaps about two weeks.

Honalee - 7 feet is what I'm going to get next year, darnit!

Thanks Konrad. I'll keep my eyes open for the next while. The weather is supposed to be reasonable for the next two weeks or so.

I don't know the variety, got it years ago from a Italian friend.
Two like this behind each other growing on sticks on a circle, they were sheltered a bit from the hail under the poplar, now starting to climb onto.

Mine are going mad over here in zone 2b (east central SK). I think I've finally figured these things out! :) I've had them grow well before, but they never produced much because the frost hit before they had a chance.

This year, I started them all in larger cell packs (36 per plastic flat) indoors. As soon as they broke the surface, they went out in the cold frame. The the trouble with pole beans is that, while the plants are just as tough as bush beans, the pole bean seeds seem to need much warmer soil to germinate. Soil temps we just don't get until we're a week or two into June. That's just too late. I'll never direct seed pole beans again.

Emerite was suggested in a few threads over in the legumes forum as one of the best pole beans for short seasons. This year, my Emerites were ready for first picking on the exact same day as my Gold Mine yellow beans. Gold Mine is just about finished now and Emerite is still going strong, continuing to both set beans and put out new blooms.

I planted the Blue Lake poles again out of habit now (and because I had leftover seed still). They've got much more leaf cover, but (as usual) they're only now starting to have beans mature enough for harvesting... and that's only the teepee that gets the most sun (the other are going to be another two or three days yet). I wouldn't plant them again since Emerite out-performs, but they do seem to hold better on the plant once they finally decide to make their appearance.

The runners - Scarlett and Painted Lady - are amazing. I don't think they'll ever quit. I love the "beany" flavour and think they're just as tender as the regular green beans IF you pick them before they get too big. I'm prefering Painted Lady to Scarlett for tenderness.

All of the above have overgrown their 7' pole teepees and are coming back down a couple feet at least. I've got to find some other way to support them now that I've figured out how to get them to grow properly up here!

First harvest of Blue Lake pole beans this year was August 17. While the yellow bush beans have been yielding heavily the past 7 or 10 days and have maybe another week to go (tops), the pole beans are just coming into production now.

Here are some Blue Lake but they only have flowers. Also 5ft tall. They started very late this year. I had to replant them because the first bit was washed out from record rains during may. Didn't take until well into June. I have my doubts there will be enough summer before we see them. I really enjoy them but this is my first time trying to grow them. The growing window was too tight this year. I'm depressed.

O.K. I have a really dumb confession to make.

I'm not growing Blue Lake pole beans, they've got to be Scarlet Runners. I've been questioning myself for the past few weeks about the lovely reddish orange flowers but was certain I'd planted the Blue Lake, and since I've never had blossoms on pole beans, I gave myself the benefit of the doubt. I guess I planted Blue Lake last year. Anyway, I read that the Scarlet runners will hopefully still produce some beans now that the weather isn't so hot and humid. I can only hope......

Well, as long as we're confessing...
The first time I ever grew beans, I planted Scarlet Runner. This was before internet, so all I knew was what the back of the package said. It said nothing about eating them, or even producing beans, so I was surprised when I got 12" beans. I couldn't find anything out about eating them, and was afraid they were strictly ornamental, so just left them on the vine. It was my most successful bean growing year ever, and we never ate a single one! That was one of our outstanding summers for high temperatures...

Yippeee!

I have seven 1/2" long beans =:) They're just the cutest things....

Anyone else's blooms turning to beans yet?

Yup! :) I was just showing our five-year-old the newest "baby beans" yesterday. She's still trying to wrap her little mind around the concept that flowers turn into beans that we can eat, lol.

I'm so impressed with these runner beans still. We had a hailstorm early last week which shredded many of the pole bean leaves, along with everything else. The runners didn't notice one bit. They've remained in full production and are putting out new leaves as well. The Blue Lake had so much leaf cover that even with all the damage on the outside, there are loads of leaves left that they just popped out from behind. The Emerites didn't fare the storm as well as everything else; the beans are still coming, but they're maturing at a much smaller size than before the hail damage.

I've never had much luck with Scarlet Runners -- a half dozen beans/plant. I planted Blue Lake Pole mid June and they are just starting to flower. Maybe we will have a warm fall. :)

My plants are turning yellow now =:(

They probably don't like the heat and humidity we've had any more than I do.

I now wonder if my little baby beans will amount to anything. Anybody else have the same problem with yellowing?

ljpother - just starting to flower now? I hope you get beans.

I've been so drowning in wax beans lately that I've been doing my best to ignore the pole beans... they are in desperate need of a picking. Picked the last of the yellow wax beans on Friday (pulled the plants) so will try to pick and photo the pole beans shortly.
-Don

Here's some pole beans and today's pickings, on August 27. I made the support by hammering in 3 - 8-foot pieces of wood (1"x1" I think), then bent the tops of the poles together and lashed them at the top with wire. The beans did the rest. This is "Stringless Blue Lake" variety.

My beans are in full sun and don't have the thick foliage most of these pictures show. Do I need to give them more fertilizer early?

We've grown pole beans in the past and always gotten beans from them. This year dh wanted them again, so i planted three of them in the garden and put some long stakes in for them to climb. I really didn't think we were going to get anything this time but there were a few beans hanging from the top when i was in the garden just now. I don't think we'll get a lot, though, not unless the weather holds out.

Lipother, when they started growing into vines (sometime in late June maybe?), I hit them quite heavily with a balanced fertilizer like 7-7-7 or 10-10-10. That was the only time I fertilized them.

And never let them be too dry, I put allot of manure in...it really
makes a difference.
Looking good!

Oops, those deep cracks in my garden in my photo are proof that I didn't pay heed to Konrad's warning about not letting pole beans get too dry. Konrad is definitely correct, I just find this late-season gardening a bit overwhelming... so much to do, so little time, before frost trumps all.

LOL...I never knew you had cracks until you mentioned....still a nice crop! Probably a couple of weeks before a cold snap we can forget about watering.

I picked 9 beans this afternoon! LOL

I also picked 9 beans today, although one of them may be too old.

Don's in the lead by far with his harvest.

My plants aren't looking good. They seem to be in a steady decline, so I may have blossoms but no more beans. We'll see if today's rain helps. =:(

Good news, we may get an ice cream pail of pole beans. Not mature ones and given the cool spell we've entered I can't say how much longer they will grow. If we can pull off another 10-12 days of growing weather I'll be happy.

I've been lucky so far this year. Managed to get 3 large harvests from them so far. Purple, romano, fortex so far....

Lots of smaller beans left to grow big and tonnes of blossoms. I think I'm just lucky with pole beans. Would never get this kind of luck with bush beans.

Bush beans in average generally do better, I like to grow both but never have my hopes too high on the pole beans, this year turns out to bee good,...had several pickings.

Look at those beans !

I got a total of 11 beans. I still have some blossoms but unless a miracle happens, 11 will be my total =:(

You beat me - i got 9. :> But i may get more because of this hot weather. You never know!

Hey nutsaboutflowers,

You need to switch next year from Scarlet Runners to something like Blue Lake. I've been growing the Blue Lake (from Vesey's Seeds) this year and I can't count how many meals we've had with the Blue Lakes, plus I have given away a plastic shopping-bag full of fresh beans, plus I've processed and frozen far more than that. All from one 3-leg trellis system. If you've got a sunny spot, switch to something like Blue Lake next year, and worry about what to do with all those beans...

I'll definitely get Blue Lake next year. Our family loves green beans, so we'd never be giving any of them away, no matter how many we grew.

Thanks Don =:)

I've picked twice. With what the slugs left on my bush beans, I had enough for a stir fry the first time and more than enough for a side dish the second time. I should be able to do that again.

Got 2 more yesterday! LOL

Just over 2 small ice cream pails so far. The majority of beans need between 3-5 more days. Then we'll get a huge amount all at once. Frost is forecast for next week. It'll be touch and go.

I have another 8 or so on my plants that are less than one inch long. Good grief. It's so pathetic that it's almost funny.

Almost.

It's nice to see other people's successes though =:)

Don't worry, you'll get there...your'e still young.
I took everything off today...it supposed to be tonight, last night
was near too, some cucumber plants were limp...another year goodby.

I guess I'll pull the darn things today. The odds of the little tiny beans doing anything more are next to nil.

It'll make it easier to cover the tomatoes tonight.

Looking forward to trying again next year =:)

We picked about 4 and bit ice cream pails but we got beans. Supposed to be a hard frost tonight..

For the first time ever I actually got every bean to mature on the pole beans. The plants finished flowering at least a couple of weeks ago and the last of the beans filled out and was picked today. The plants are now in the composter. Not really sure why they did so well this year, I guess the September heat made up for the slow start in June.

Don, you must be one happy gardener right now.

Pole beans and blackberries. I'd be thrilled =:D