Kitchen Garden Forum

if you could only grow one variety of french climbing bean would you grow blue lake or cobra or maybe something better again.i will hopefully selling them so i need a variety that produces good healthy strong plants,that will produce masses of tasty string less beans. your replies will hopefully help me to decide on a variety to order for next year
regards nemo

Hi Nemo

I have a favourite which was sent to me by someone on here. I'm told it is a very old variety of Blue Lake, but it seems totally different. It has purple rather than white flowers and the pods are long, straight and up to 10" long. What's more, the taste is lovely.

I can't tell you where to buy it, but I am saving lots of seed this year and will send you some if you like, just send me a PM.

Hi Nemo,
I think that you will be very satisfied with Cobra because they have a long season and crop profusely.
I find that unless you pick Blue Lake as soon as they mature they have a tendency to set seed and become a little stringy.
Chantal,
I may have given you some Cosse Violette seed the other year. These are as you describe and are a very tasty variety turning green when cooked. Not in the slightest like Blue Lake though.
JB.

Hi JB

These beans came, I think, from someone called Sue, they weren't amonst those I had from you. They're really nothing like Blue Lake as they don't set seed readily, aren't stringy even when they are setting seed and don't bend like Blue Lake. They are just brilliant; Seedling will bear me out here. In fact, Captain Carrot also tried them when he visited and mightly approved.

Hi Nemo, though I don't have great experience of different varieties, the one I go back to time & time again is Cobra.

Maybe others taste better if you're really careful with them, but Cobra "just work", seem to need minimal attention (other than regular watering) and taste great.

I've also tried Limka (flat, stringless French beans) and climbing Borlotti's. Each were ok, but much fussier about growing conditions, average yield and needed to be picked at exactly the right moment if you want them at their best (see Johnboy's comment).

thanks for replying cobra for this years beans.

Mr. Fearn's Purple Flowered is a lovely bean, very very productive, tender even when large and pretty flowers. Tastes good and freezes well too. I got mine from the Heritage Seed Library.

I also like Cosse Violette for its looks and flavour.

I'd be torn between Cobra and Blauhilde (the purple climbing bean). I like Cobra very much , but this past year in the rather cold and wet weather I found that Blauhilde flowered and set to bean rather better than my Cobra did. So I try to hedge my bets and grow a couple of varieties so that if one doesn't perform well, the other may do slightly better.

I like Blauhilde too. It's still going strong and coped well with all the funny weather this summer - here in East Anglia we had some long dry spells as well as wet ones.
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Granny

Granny wrote:I like Blauhilde too. It's still going strong and coped well with all the funny weather this summer - here in East Anglia we had some long dry spells as well as wet ones.
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Granny

That's the one I've grown this year, and it's still going. At least it was yesterday, but looking at the frost out there this morning, I doubt if it's still going now

All you Blauhilde fans, where do you get your seed from please? If you say T&M I guess I won't be trying it.

Hi Geoff

You can get Blauhilde from Tuckers and The Organic Gardening Catalogue

Crosse de violette are my usual choice, they grow very fast and are very prolific - and they taste good too.

Do generally grow a second one each year but nothing else has come close so far....

has anyone had any success with 'yard long'? My plants didn't even get that big.

I'm afraid my Yard Long beans only produced one pod, and that wasn't very long. They like nice warm weather, so last year was hopeless for them.

Di

Yard-long beans are only distantly related to climbing French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Really not suited to our climate. Have a look at this discussion from six months ago ---

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