Yellow beans for canning

BlackWillowFarm · #1 02/09/13, 08:26 AM

Planning my garden when there's a foot of snow on the ground helps me get over my winter blah's. Today I'm thinking about which varieties of beans to grow.

What is your favorite yellow bean for canning? Is it a pole or bush bean?

Paquebot · #2 02/09/13, 01:21 PM

Best I've found is one which was developed just for canning and that's Gold Mine. A lot of pods are ripe at the same time and harvesting is by a handful at a time. Not certain if it's available in garden packets as it's grown around here for a canning company. Got plenty of seed if you need any.

Martin

BlackWillowFarm · #3 02/09/13, 01:28 PM

Sure! I'll try them.

bama-newsteader · #4 02/09/13, 02:02 PM

Please pardon my ignorance here...I've only planted beans once so far. I was wondering what makes a bean good for canning? I planted a couple of types of purple bean and green bean last year and I loved them because I could eat them right off the vine. Would these be good for canning? (Also please forgive me if this is a little off topic)

Paquebot · #5 02/09/13, 02:20 PM

A good canning snap bean is one which is straight, uniform, tender, thick flesh, and small bean. There are many which meet most of those specifications. A yellow one which I like is Brittle Wax but it's not popular since it's curved. Carson is another good yellow but it's not as fat. Pencil Pod Wax is an old yellow one which has only good qualities and yet not very popular. There are many good green ones and a few purple ones. Not going to begin saying which green is best but no purple is better than Purple Queen as far as I am concerned. I've grown 2 other bush purples and they can't come close to PQ.

Martin

theemon · #6 02/09/13, 03:10 PM

im learning so much here...

Centralilrookie · #7 02/09/13, 07:24 PM

Contender has my vote. Bush type, straight, stringless, heavy and early producer. I'm also thankful that it also easy to grow here in Il.

Callieslamb · #8 02/11/13, 07:10 AM

The only trouble I've had with canning yellow beans, is they turn kind of green - or at least, they are no longer true yellow. The one I remember was Gold of Baca or something like that. I've never found a bean that I couldn't can...but I grow the longest ones I can find. A curved bean shouldn't be a problem for home canning but I can see where a commercial company might not like them.

Randy Rooster · #9 02/11/13, 07:23 AM

I grow a bush bean called goldenrod - it does real well here.

Paquebot · #10 02/11/13, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

The only trouble I've had with canning yellow beans, is they turn kind of green - or at least, they are no longer true yellow. The one I remember was Gold of Baca or something like that. I've never found a bean that I couldn't can...but I grow the longest ones I can find. A curved bean shouldn't be a problem for home canning but I can see where a commercial company might not like them.

Your bean would have been Gold of Bacau which I don't care for but others say is the best yellow pole bean. If being curved is no problem, Sultan's Golden Crescent is a yellow pole with the beans in a half circle. Maria Amazilitei's grows like the number 6 with the tail completing the circle.

Retaining the yellow color is one of the attributes of many of the commercial varieties not available in garden packets. A trade-off is that those types are also considered as determinates. That is, they produce a huge crop all at one time so that everything is uniform when harvested. However, if everything is picked by hand, they will usually come back with a second but smaller harvest.

Martin

cvk · #11 02/11/13, 01:31 PM

I grew the Pencil Pod yellow as a pole bean last year. It tasted fine but it wasn't like I remembered because there were several beans that never turned yellow and some were more flattened like a romano. Speaking of which, I see that there are yellow romano pole beans available now. Has anybody grown them? Are they good?

Paquebot · #12 02/11/13, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvk

I grew the Pencil Pod yellow as a pole bean last year. It tasted fine but it wasn't like I remembered because there were several beans that never turned yellow and some were more flattened like a romano. Speaking of which, I see that there are yellow romano pole beans available now. Has anybody grown them? Are they good?

Pencil Pod Wax, or Pencil Pod Golden Wax, is an old bush type. Should only get about 15 to 20 inches high and not climb or run. If it were sold as a pole, it wasn't Pencil Pod.

Martin

cvk · #13 02/11/13, 02:54 PM

I hear ya, Martin, the ones I used to plant were bush. I didn't remember a pole bean but thought maybe I just had not heard of it before. Wonder if I kept the package--will go look and see if I can find it to see what company sold it. It is yellow and it does have a black seed.

Still looking for the rest of the package--I didn't throw them out but I didn't put them with the ones I am saving because I was not happy with the wide range of product they produced. I searched the internet and found this-see the Yellow wax---I remember the packet said yellow pencil pod wax pole bean---could have been Livingston as I bought them in town and not from a catalog---

Then consider the pencil-pod wax pole beans:
[Kentucky Wonder Wax are neither round-podded nor yellow]
Neckargold
Yellow Wax

http://forums.seedsavers.org/showthread.php?t=4821