Heirloom, Hybrid or Hype?
tried a few more varieties. This year I planted La France, Fin des Bagnols, an heirloom known for its earliness, Vernandon, an OP variety boasting 6" long pods, flavor and vigor and Fasold, an OP pole bean.
We've had our normal, unpredictable summer weather. One day its 50 degrees, the next it's 90. It wasn't the best spring for starting beans, but everyone managed to come up eventually. As for Fin des Bagnols being early - not so much. It didn't really distinguish itself in any category. La France was its usual wonderful self. This is the second year I tried Fasold and also the last. The vines don't seem to be able to take our extreme heat waves. They dry, no matter how hard I tried to keep them watered and never really produced much of a crop. The catalog said it was from Switzerland. I don't know what zone that is, but I don't think it's compatible with the mid-Hudson Valley. Vernandon is an open pollinated bush bean. This is the first time I've grown a bean superior to La France and I was delighted. The pods really were 6" long. They stayed tender, never got stringy and the flavor was exceptional. The only draw back was that after the initial onslaught of beans, the plants seem to tire out. They looked healthy enough, but there were no more flowers. Maybe it was the weather. I will try them again next year, but I'll buy more seed and plant in succession.
I think the only conclusions I can come to from my uncontrolled experiment is that there are good varieties in both groups and some are probably better suited to my area than others. As I said at the beginning of this article, I would be very interested in hearing if any of you have done comparisons and what your findings are.