difference between bush/pole beans

May 20, 2010 1:16 PM

I planted some dry beans I bought in grocery store. They all sprouted. There were 5-6 varieties, big white ones, black ones, yellow etc. Is there any way for me to know are these going to be bush beans or pole beans? I would like to grow them on my balcony (to cover my wall) and I don't have much space. I would prefer pole or climbing beans, I don't have space for bush varieties. Would I be able to tell the difference when they grow into seedlings?
posted by leigh1 to home & garden (5 answers total)

There's no way to tell from the beans. But since you bought them from a grocery store, they are most likely bush beans. The commercial production of beans usually requires they be the bush varieties.
posted by Toekneesan at 2:30 PM on May 20, 2010

Toekneesan has it. If they're produced in mass for sale in stores, they'd be harvested by machine, which means that they'll be bush beans. There's a 90+% certainty, I'd say.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:20 PM on May 20, 2010

BUT if they were hybrid beans, there's no telling what you'll end up with.
posted by miss patrish at 4:48 PM on May 20, 2010

You'll know pretty quickly one way or another, as pole beans put out a long top sprout fairly quickly (or at least the ones I have grown have).
posted by miss patrish at 4:50 PM on May 20, 2010

Thank you, all:)
posted by leigh1 at 4:25 AM on May 21, 2010