George's Fowler Pole Green Garden Bean
Price: $4.95
SKU: 3031351
75 days — 'George's Fowler' beans require a trellis, poles, or other form of structure to support their heavy eight to ten foot tall vines. As with other pole-type beans, productivity tends to increase if the pods are kept harvested throughout the season. Like one of its parents, the 'Fowler' bush bean, one thing that sets this variety apart from other bean varieties is its apparent lack of the typical odor of green beans.
'George's Fowler' bean was sent to us by seed saver Jeff Fleming (MI FL J), who had received a sample of an F1 cross from seed saver George McLaughlin (OK MC G) who noticed that it had attributes of the original 'Fowler' bush bean, but as a pole-type variant. Its seeds had the characteristic "coffee bean" color and as noted above, Jeff noticed that it lacked the typical, strong scent of most green beans. Jeff also observed that Japanese beetles basically ignore this variety, especially when other, more attractive plants are planted nearby.
For many years, Jeff did the hard work of stabilizing the hybrid and selecting for a pole habit, dark brown seed coats, and stringless pods. After the eighth generation (F8), he felt it was stable, named it to honor George McLaughlin, "... for astutely observing that he had a fortuitous cross that might be of value," and sent it to us in 2018 for evaluation. Our trial confirmed that this now open-pollinated variety was quite stable. We scheduled a limited production grow-out during the summer of 2019 for introduction to gardeners for the 2020 gardening season. Each packet contains one ounce, which is about 90 seeds.
Don’t bother trying to get an early start with beans – you’ll waste a lot of seed! Beans are a tender vegetable and you should not plant them until all danger of frost has passed and the soil remains above 65ºF. Sow seeds 1½ inches deep, every two to three inches. As they make efficient use of vertical space, provide a trellis. Use string or twine as wire will heat and burn the tender vines.
Pick the pods while young as they are more tender and succulent and less likely to be stringy. For seed saving, allow the pods to fully mature and dry completely out on the vines.
Customer Reviews:
By Julia (Wisconsin) on June 18, 2024
I planted these beans in Spring 2022 and they are still popping up in my garden from that original planting! I had to thin dozens of plants in my bed down to 15 volunteers and I planted some on a grape trellis last week to see how they would do in partial shade. This is bean that will keep a family in beans by planting just a few seeds, 5-6. With 15+ I'm excited to see what produces more for canning- these or your typical go-to bush varieties. It's an easy bean to grow, powers through heat, cold, humidity and drought, pests like Japanese beetles and thriving when Long Island Cheese pumpkin vines almost completely choked them out last; our first volunteer crop. These even produced after the first couple of frosts although they did slow down. These do get stringy if you leave them on the vines for days. But it's a small gripe when you can purchase seeds once and get many years of growth out of one packet.
By Evelyn Roberts on December 29, 2021
I grew these pole beans on a trellis in my garden in 2021. Once they start bearing, they just don't stop and I finally quit picking because I didn't need to can anymore. The taste is just like bush green beans but they are much easier to pick. Delicious raw or canned. Beautiful on the trellis and not at all bothered by pests.
