Help Me Pick!

[Aerial]

I'm perusing the E&R seed catalog trying to decide what to order but don't know much about beans. I'd like beans for fresh eating, and not your typical "every one has grown it" varieties. Help me pick?

-- Green Pod Bush Beans --
1. Advantage
2. Black Valentine
3. Blush Lake Bush #156
4. Bush Lake Bush #274
5. Burpee Stringless
6. Bush Romano #14
7. Commodore Improved
8. Contender
9. Dwarf Hort Taylor
10. Ferrari
11. French Garden
12. French Horticulture
13. Furano (Roma)
14. Jade
15. Jade II
16. Kentucky Wonder 125
17. Kentucky Wonder Bush
18. Landreth Stringless
19. Momentum
20. Prevail
21. Provider
22. Red Swan
23. Roma II
24. Roma Improved Bush
25. Slenderette
26. Spartan Arrow
27. Strike
28. Tendercrop
29. Tenderette
30. Tenderette Imp
31. Tenderpod
32. Tennessee Green Pod
33. Top Crop
34. Valentino

-- Runner Beans --
35. Red Peanut (Pink Hlf Rnr)
36. Scarlet Runner
37. Spartan Half Runner
38. State Half Runner
39. Tenessee Half Runner
40. White Emergo
41. White Half Runner

-- Purple Pod Beans --
42. Royal Burgundy
43. Purple Pod Pole
44. Royalty Purple Pod

-- Pole Beans - Green --
45. Blue Lake Pole FM1K
46. Kentucky Blue
47. Kentucky Wonder Pole
48. Missouri Wonder Pole
49. Oriental Wonder
50. Rattlesnake
51. Romano Pole
52. White Kentucky 191

-- Yellow Pod Wax Beans --
53. Brittle Wax
54. Carson
55. Cherokee Wax
56. Dragon Tongue
57. Eureka
58. Goldcrop
59. Golden Butterwax
60. Golden Wax Imp (Top Notch)
61. Gold Rush
62. Kentucky Wonder Wax Pole
63. Pencil Pod

-- Lima Beans - Bush & Pole
64. Bridgeton
65. Broad Windsor Fava
66. Burpee Imp. Lima
67. Eastland
68. Fordhook 242
69. Henderson Bush
70. Jackson Wonder
71. Christmas Lg Speckled - Pole
72. Florida Butter Speckled - Pole
73. King of the Garden - Pole
74. Thorogreen - Bush
75. White Dixie Butter Pea - Bush

-- Soup Beans --
76. Black Turtle
77. Calypso
78. Dark Red Kidney
79. Etna
80. Great Northern
81. Jacob's Cattle
82. Light Red Kidney
83. Marrow Fat (White)
84. Navy (Fleetwood)
85. Pinto
86. Small Red
87. Soldier
88. Vermont Cranberry
89. Ying Yang

[Worth1]

If you only grow one bean it better be the Vermont Cranberry.
I am telling you it is a real must of a bean to grow.

These bean types originated in the Americas went to Europe and came back home.
They are nothing like you have ever had before I cannot say enough good about them.
I dont care for dried beans but I love these.
They are not a hybrid i dont think and you can save the beans to grow the next year.
They cranberry beans I buy aren't.
But they aren't Vermont cranberry and not a bush bean.

Worth

[Aerial]

High Moving Seeds says,

Amazing Vermont heirloom with unsurpassed rich flavor. Can be used as a snap, shell or dry bean. As a dry bean, the variety stores exceptionally well. Maroon-colored beans are decorated with darker red, cranberry markings. This variety, dating back to the 1800s, is well-suited to short-season, cool summer climates. Versatile · Short-season · Bush habit

Looks great! Thanks Worth.

[AlittleSalt]

Top Crop is a good bean, but it would fall under the category of "Everyone has grown it" It is a very simple good tasting bean. Plant it - water it - pick it - cook it - eat it. It even tolerates some weeds growing by them. (A few - not a lot)

[Father'sDaughter]

A couple of years ago when I was trying to pick a bush bean to grow, a few of the more experienced bean growers here told me to avoid Contender and grow Provider. Not sure how popular it is, and haven't really grown many others to compare it to, but Provider is now a staple in my garden.

[Cole_Robbie]

Strike and Cherokee Yellow Wax are both great varieties, but too common to bother saving seeds.

[jmsieglaff]

For fresh eating I can't say enough about Dragon Tongue. They quickly become our go to bean and grow green beans for color to mix in with the Dragon Tongue. Compared to Blue Lake 274 Drangon Tongue is juicier, sweeter, with a nice snap and it looks awesome too.

[Aerial]

Awesome! Thanks everyone for your input. I'm getting Dragon Tongue from trade and excited to add more varieties.

[Zeedman]

Of the beans listed, I can only comment on a few.

I concur with the recommendation for Vermont Cranberry, especially for use as a shelly bean... and I heartily recommend that you try them that way.

For pole snaps, I grew White Kentucky 191 (a.k.a. KY Wonder White and Pole 191) when I lived in SoCal, and it was my favorite bean for many years. Very heavy yield, and rich beany flavor. That bean, in fact, was what got me started saving seeds, when Ferry Morse dropped it. Romano Pole is another heavy yielder, with really wonderful flavor... a must if you like making minestrone soup. I could also vouch for Rattlesnake, especially if you intend to freeze some.

For limas, it depends upon whether you prefer bush or pole, and whether you prefer large-seeded limas or "baby" limas... I've always been partial to the larger ones. King of the Garden did really well for me in San Diego, a pole variety with large seeds and a great yield. Christmas did OK, not as heavy a yield, but the attractive red & white seeds are big enough for bragging rights. For bush limas, Burpee Improved and Fordhook 242 are both good large-seeded varieties.

It is worth pointing out that limas can be short-lived perennials if you have frost-free winters. I was able to over-winter KOG twice when I lived in San Diego; although those plants bore earlier than direct-seeded, the seeds were smaller.

The "runner bean" section of the list contains both true runner beans (such as Emergo and ScarletRunner), and half-runner common beans. True runner beans prefer cooler temperatures, so if your area has hot summers, they might not perform well... but they excel in cool coastal climates.

I'd like beans for fresh eating, and not your "every one has grown it" varieties. I'd like to grow them out for swaps next year.

Emphasis mine. Previous recommendations aside, if you want to grow beans for swaps that not everyone grows, you should look into doing some swaps. There are hundreds of wonderful heirloom beans out there, and with a California climate, you can grow most of them. You might, for example, want to take a look at the Hopi limas, with beautiful colors and rich flavors. You might also want to consider trying winged beans and yardlong beans, both of which do well in California. I could make a lot of recommendations.

[Aerial]

Thank you Zeedman, for the recommendations.

Of a half dozen bush beans I grew last year, we liked the taste of Dragon Tongue best.

[habitat_gardener]

Not on your list, but one of my favorites is Blue Coco, a flat purple pole bean. Purple beans are easier to pick because they show up better in the mass of green foliage. Very prolific! I originally got my seed stock at a local farmers' market from Coke Farms...they were $4 a pound!

Scarlet runner beans grow well here and will regrow from the root each year, but they're my least favorite snap bean. I didn't get around to planting beans at all this year, though, so runner beans were welcome.

[greenthumbomaha]

Nebraska is a huge producer of soybeans . I'm not sure if any of the beans on your list are edamame. Those are supposed to be good and sweet.

Don't go bonkers buying stuff your first year, experiment and see what does well in your soil. You will soon figure our your needs and tastes.

- Lisa

[Worth1]

I have done some research on some of my favorite beans and have discovered something.
But let me start from the beginning.
Some years ago at the HEB grocery store they sold cranberry beans but they dont anymore and I cant remember the name of the brand.
I had to look on line to find out other names for the beans.

Then I looked again at your list and see you have them in another section of your list but under a different name.
Romano.
Roma.
Are of the same type of bean as the cranberry bean.
It can also be found as a Roman bean.
These are of a flat Italian type bean and when cooked green are fantastic.

In this family of beans are the Cargamanto beans that originated in Columbia.
In my possession right now I have.
White Cargamanto that isnt really white.
Red Cargamanto that is a dark red.
Roman/romanas beans that look just like the cranberry beanand are the same thing.
In other words on your list you have duplicates more or less of the same type beans.
Red Cargamanto beans which isn't on the list is a bugger to cook correctly.
They need to soak a good 24 hours and need to cook for a long time let cool and cook again they are very firm but very tasty.
They do not break down into mush as is the case with other beans.
All of the beans like this I have are distributed by the GOYA company and the seeds/beans are viable.
You should be able to find them in the Mexican or international markets there.

I will put some pictures up of them later.
Worth

[Ricky Shaw]

Jade II sound likes a sneeze if you say it fast with emphasis. I could have fun with that, so I'd grow it for sure.