I may be trading for some Grady Bailly Greasy Cutshort seeds in the near future. Has anyone grown this bean and, if so, can you tell me about flavor, production, temperature tolerance (heat and cold), etc.?

I noticed that Southern Exposure Seed Exchange sold it in their 2009 catalogue and described it as "Heirloom OP 80 days. Highly productive white-seeded greasy bean. Very tender, large seeds." It is also sold in the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture bean catalogue, where it is listed as coming from Polk County, North Carolina and being a good seller among greasy beans.

Just curious to see if anyone here has firsthand experience with this bean.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I think I should rephrase my question. I hope to be able to grow George's wonderful sounding Tennessee Cutshort beans next year. They sound like everything I am looking for in a pole bean: meaty, tender and widely adaptable.

That being said, if you had only limited growing space and can have only two pole beans, would a greasy bean like Grady Bailly be sufficiently different in taste and texture from Tennessee Cutshort to justify growing them? Or should I go for something completely different like a pole shelly?

I have grown Blue Lake bush beans for several years, but I tend not to like wimpy, slender snaps. Otherwise I would choose something like Fortex as my second pole bean. But I would rather grow something more interesting and maybe work toward preserving a heritage variety.

I have grown this bean here in Central England. Did not expect a huge amount because the weather and climate are very different from Bill Best's, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It did exactly what it said it would do. Although quite a bit later than 80 days, this bean was not too late for us. Seedsaving was easy too.

We ate the pods when they were well filled, fairly mature and they were really good too. I can recommend this bean. It certainly coped fine with our colder climate.