List of Vining Varieties of Beans

Filet Beans

• Filet beans can be difficult to find fresh in markets, so growing these super-slim varieties at home is a sure-fire way to enjoy their delicate flavor. Sometimes called by their French name, haricots verts, filet pole beans produce long, stringless, pencil-thin pods, typically dark green or yellow. “Fortex” produces mature pods in 60 days and has resistance to anthracnose and bean mosaic virus. Other filet cultivars include “Maxibel,” “Isar” and “Ferrari.”

Lima Beans

• Lima beans, also known as butter beans, are sensitive to cold temperatures and are generally planted outdoors a couple of weeks after other varieties. Lima beans also require a longer growing season than typical bean plants, up to four months to produce mature beans.Their larger size will require stronger supports and more space than standard beans. Vining lima bean varieties include “King of the Garden,” “Willow Leaf Beans," “Red Carolina” and “White Christmas.”

Snap Beans

• Snap beans are the more traditionally recognized green bean. The pole varieties grow on 6- to 8-foot vines that produce large green pods typically containing six beans. Pods are typically green, although beans can be different colors, such as the white beans of the “Kentucky Blue” variety. Beans are tender as long as the pod is green; once pods turn yellow, however, the beans will become more tough. Other varieties of snap beans are “Blue Lake,” Kentucky Wonder” and “Tobacco Worm.”

Wax Beans

• Wax bean varieties resemble snap beans except for their yellow pods. Growing on vines that train up to 8 feet, wax beans are generally mild-flavored; however, the unusual “Grandma Nellie's Yellow Mushroom” variety bears beans that taste more like its fungal namesake than a typical wax bean. Length of growing season also varies among wax beans, from the quick-growing “Gold Marie” bean, which matures in just 55 days, to the slower “Yellow Romano,” which requires up to 74 days to produce ripe beans.

Yard-Long Beans

• Yard-long, or asparagus, beans belong to the long bean category of pole beans. With vines reaching heights of 10 feet, not all yard-long varieties may produce beans 3 feet long, but 18-inch pods are common, and the “Taiwan Black-Seeded Long Bean” can bear beans 38 inches long. Typically, however, yard-long beans are harvested before they reach full maturity, after which it is best to boil them rather than eat them fresh or fried. Additional yard-long varieties include “Chinese Red Noodle,” “Chinese Mosaic Long Bean” and “Asparagus Yardlong Bean.”