Looking for thin green beans

I have found a frozen green bean that is very thin and firm and delish!

I have no idea what kind they are. I know what kind they aren't!

Any suggestions on what long thin beans I could grow?

Thanks.

most likely a filet bean which are usually picked at about a quarter inch in diameter. http://twilley.imirus.com/Mpowered/book/vts11/i1/p1

We planted the fillet beans from Johnny's. Tavera.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-317-green-filet.aspx
There are also yellow & purple fillet. We bought all three, mixed the seed & had a wonderful row of beans. When you pick you have a nice colorful assortment.
Regular size bean, best is Jade. Also from Johnny's

This message was edited Dec 11, 2011 8:57 AM

Fortex is a wonderful French pole bean, and if you catch it early it's very long and thin. It's still good even when it gets bigger, though, which is great for people who don't pick daily.

Ummm! Thanks for the ideas. :)

Another great filet green pole bean is Emerite which can be purchased from several sites, among them Kitchen Garden (part of Scheepers Bulbs) http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/cgi-bin/catview.cgi?_fn=Product&_category=183 or Renees Garden Seed (www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/seeds-hm/vegB.htm). I grew Fortex for the first time in 2011 but my husband said he prefers the Emirite - both are easy to grow so it's a matter of taste which one you may prefer.
Renees also carries a filet yellow pole bean called "French Gold" which is delicious.

There are numerous varieties of French filet bush beans which can be found at most vegetable seed sites including Renees or Fedco which has wonderful varieties such as Masai and Maxibel ( http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search.php?page=1&totalRows=55&listname=Bean)
Territorial Seeds includes the terrific yellow Soleil Filet Bush Bean (http://www.territorialseed.com/prod_detail_list/182).
I have never purchased from Johnny's but know from others how good they are and they do have an interesting selection.

Just google French Filet Beans and you will bring up a number of companies and varieties to choose from. They are our favorite beans!


This message was edited Dec 11, 2011 1:48 PM

I have not been able to get filet beans to germinate. Do you folks direct sow or start indoors and transplant out? I was so disappointed. :-|

Always direct seed beans.
Germinated good in spring but not so good in hot summer.

I always direct-sow. This past season sow bugs attacked the young bean seedlings, but some diatomaceous earth seemed to take care of them.

Fotex have a wonderful beany flavor (at least we think so). If they are best picked pencil thin. When they get too large, they tend to be tough.

Try as I might, I always manage to miss several each day because they blend so well with the leaves.

Soooo.... next summer I'm going to try purple podded pole beans from one of these seed companies.

http://rareseeds.com/purple-podded-pole-bean.html
http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=102(OG)

I ordered purple, yellow and green filet beans, and a few other lovelies, this morning from Johnny's - you Enablers you!!! ;-))

Johnny's has a bunch of seeds on sale for a dollar a packet and retailmenot dot com has a coupon code for free shipping....that saved me $7!! I don't remember the code now or I'd post it.

I had poor luck with my one attempt at growing filet beans. I believe it was Burpee "Fresh Filet" but am not positive. (Sorry, my record-keeping is pretty lacking). Anyway, I found the production sparse, and when you're talking about a very thin bean to begin with, I found it not worth it. The regular Kentucky Wonder beans next door put them all to shame. My two cents, but if I try filet again, I'll go with one of the ones recommended above.

Honeybee, even when they get big we like Fortex, but we just cook 'em longer and with bacon fat or olive oil and garlic. They do tend to play hide and go seek, though!

Just an aside:
I think the "hide and go seek" thing is one of the best parts of gardening -- I just love the treasure hunt aspect of peeking under the foliage to see what gems await. I think that's why beans are so fun -- they hide well!

As long as we are talking beans, try Dragon Tongue.
They are heirloom wax bean & great. Yellow with purple blotches.

Honey - this season I grew purple Trionfono pole beans. They were delicious!

I am looking forward to some filet beans. I haven't reviewed all these links, but it looks like a great topic for everybody. :D

A.

Amanda, we've grown the purple Trionfono beans, too, and I really liked them. Beans are prolific here, though, so I ended up cutting mine down to only one type, especially after my Fortex crossed with my bush Pelandron beans! I had to start over again with Fortex from a seed supplier instead of being able to save my own.

AmandaEsq, and all, I had very good luck with Contender (not a fillet but really good flavor and tender), http://www.southernexposure.com/contender-buff-valentine-snap-bean-bush-28g-p-519.html ; and also Bobby Bianco fillet green bean, http://www.growitalian.com/products/French-Bean-Boby-Bianco.html ; and also this one http://www.growitalian.com/bean-pole-santa-anna-57-4/

This past summer was brutal as far as heat, drought, and winds were concerned and yet, with drip irrigation, I got good production from the above beans. Next year I'm branching our into various colors. I might as well stick with what really did well for me last summer: green beans, melons, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and to a lesser extent tomatoes. Everything else just couldn't take the heat or I was too inexperienced to make a go of it. I love to experiment and will keep doing that, but the weather people are saying that we will be getting more of the same this coming summer in my area, so a majority of the garden will get more T-tapes and drip and whatever made it last summer.

I'm still toying with the peanuts idea, and probably will try again with the sweet potatoes....

This message was edited Dec 14, 2011 8:23 AM

GG - are these the Trionfono beans to which you referred?

http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0214/Bean-Pole-Trionfo-Violetto-Heirloom-Seed

Yes, the very ones, although I probably got mine from Pinetree. They have a very nice flavor, and we liked them, although I think we still like Fortex a bit better. Also I was trying to do as French a garden as possible just for fun, so Fortex worked well.

Honey - those are the same ones I grew too.

GG - the French have a reputation for being great gardeners, and have a love of food in general.

I love your idea of having a French garden - sounds so romantic ^^_^^

Yes, you can sign love songs as you pull the weeds.

CountryGardens - singing to weeds only encourages them to produce even more weeds. Grumbling bad words under your breath doesn't seem to work, either. LOL

We love looking at their potagers when we visit France. I stake my tomatoes French style, on tripods. They shoehorn veggies into the tiniest places, and often mix flowers and produce so their garden plots are really pretty. I don't sing to my plants but we do like to sit by the greenhouse and sip wine sometimes.

Speaking of French gardens, I just today got a whole package full of great seeds from a guy in northern France, who contacted me because he couldn't find Picardy tomatoes there and thought I could find them here (I did.) He lives in the Picardie region and wanted to repatriate that variety! In exchange he sent me seeds for tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, chard (sounds like our Rainbow Chard), mâche, and several other things, including some flowers. It was like Christmas!

No beans, but it would be hard to send enough of those to make a decent row.

very cool!

Way cool.....love the way that seed swapping works.

GG - cool indeed!

(I've always wanted to learn French)

Honeybee, nothing stopping you from learning, although a pending trip to France would be a terrific incentive!

GG - I agree. We should book that trip early. ;)

Are we all going?

After Christmas is usually a tough time for folks financially. Maybe we should wait to get a headcount. ;)

I'd love to take a French vacation! Sometime between August and February - I have to be here during prime vegetable production months.

We like to go end-of-September beginning-of-October. But then that means that we have to compress all of our fall chores in a mad whirl before we leave - making wine, getting the boats and docks out of the water, prepping the house for colder weather, making a start with the wood. It takes us a few days to relax once we get there! Spring isn't good because of the garden, and winter's no fun; fall is much better because you still have some nice, mild sunny days, although last time the one day we had to go to Collioure it was pouring there so we skipped it. Then once we get back it's butchering time and the rest of the battening down of hatches. We have friends we visit there, so that makes it fun - and I get to practice my French.

GG - I looked up Collioure. It seems to be a very beautiful area.

It's really pretty. It was also painted by the Fauvists quite a bit. I have some photos from there that I keep thinking would make good paintings; the boats are multi-colored and really striking.

greenhouse_gal -

Oh, are they like that there? Actually, a friend posted a photo on his FB page of boats in the snow in Forres, and they did remind me of those Catalan craft.