The best for me me has been the pole type horticultural or cranberry
beans (Wrens Egg) . They were widely grown in the mid Atlantic for
green shelling beans (October beans) getting hard to find seeds, but
they have a relatively short maturity.

simy1 wrote:
Pat Kiewicz wrote:
simy1 said:

Johnny's 'Garden of Eden' is a lot like the bean I've been growing from
saved seed for many years from seed given to be by a co-worker. (I
bought seeds once to grow side by side for comparison.) Their
'Northeaster' is also a pretty good bean.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com

Once you do get a pole bean you really like, be sure to save your own
seeds.

I went in there and GoE did look like a good shelling bean, not much
pod, long row of beans. But Northeaster looks like a typical romano,
big pods with small, sparse seeds. Yes, romanos are very early for
pods, and my romanos are in the pod drying stage right now (for seed
saving), but I would never characterize them as productive for shelling.