On 1 Mar, 15:38, "ajr" wrote:
"Janet Galpin" wrote in message

...





The message
from "ajr" contains these words:

Good afternoon,

I'm thinking about growing some French beans this year and, as always,
I've
got a couple of questions!

1. Can anyone recommend a variety - I've been told that 'Hilton' is the
most commonly grown, but I liked the look of the 'Purple Teepee' variety;
has anyone grow these before?

2. If French beans are allowed to developed full pods, can the beans be
stored for cooking over winter?

Yet again, many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Andrew

I grew Purple Teepee last year and they were great. Very prolific; they
just went on and on producing lovely purple beans for weeks.

Often special varieties are selected for producing dried beans but I
have successfully allowed Blue Lake beans to mature on the plant and
then stored them as dried beans, haricot style. You can let them go dry
on the plant towards the end of the season or, if not fully dry, hang
them up somewhere on the plant to finish drying out.

Janet G

Thanks for the advice everyone.

The reason I was thinking of growing dwarf beans was because I thought that
they would be easier to manage, but it looks as though I might as well grow
a 'full' variety! Although I think that Purple Teepee looks promising.

Cheers,

Andrew

There are many good varieties of climbing french beans, one advantage
is that they are stringless so can be left longer on the plant.
I think the reason for the growing of dwarf French beans was that they
crop 12 weeks from sowing where as Runner beans crop 14 weeks from
sowing.
If you let them mature you will end up with haricot beans.
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries