George, All of this is so interesting.

I know that Insuk's Wang Kong doesn't set well in heat, but I keep trying to grow it anyhow. It would be worth growing just for its beauty, especially when in bloom. I do expect it will do better as a fall bean than a spring bean. I'm just hardheaded and want to grow what I want to grow, even if it won't produce well here. I'm planting Scarlet Runner Bean just for the flowers for the hummers. It never sets many pods for me either but it is gorgeous when in bloom.

It is interesting that your Fowler bush bean crossed with the RAMPANT bean. Wouldn't it be great if you could get Fowler's heat and drought-tolerance and high productivity in a rampant pole bean? If you could get a pole bean that would produce well all summer in our heat like Fowler bush bean does, that would be pretty awesome.

I can't help thinking that with Cherokee Striped Cornfield, it has to be the heat or that a shortening daylength triggers blooming or something. I find the heat here impedes pole bean production more than it used to, if that makes any sense. Is that climate change? In the early 2000s through at least 2007, I distinctly remember growing pole beans and harvesting from them in the hot summer months. They might shut down for a while it August, but not for long. You don't forget standing out there in the sweltering heat picking a multitude of beans from the bean teepees. Since 2007? I get some pole beans harvested early from spring blooms, then a huge lull in July and August where the flowers won't form beans, then if I can keep the plants alive through the long hot summer (or if I plant more in late July for fall beans), I'll be picking pole beans in October. I suppose this is one reason I have switched more and more to bush beans. They don't produce well in heat either, but since a lot of them produce earlier than many pole beans, they still produce a good harvest. I just can't help thinking that since 2007 we have had too much heat too early for the pole beans to have a chance to set many beans. The insane heat that used to arrive in July or August seems to arrive earlier....like in June. It seems to shut down the pole beans almost before they start.

Another thing I've noticed? Flat-podded pole beans of the romano bean type will set better for me in heat than regular more rounded snap beans or even cutshort types. Why is that? Is is something in their genetic heritage that allows them to set beans better in extreme heat? I wish I knew. Still, at least Rattlesnake will set beans almost all summer long so at least there's that.

This year I'm trying Tenderstar. (Back to that hardheadness of mine that makes me want to grow beans that don't want to grow here....) It is a commercial variety from Europe that is a cross of a French pole bean and a runner bean, and they list it as P. coccineus, so you know that means that growing it here may not work out well. I hope it flowers and sets beans well here, but I know there's a pretty good chance it won't. Still, in the photos of it, the pods look sort of semi-flat. Maybe they are more rounded than a typical Roman bean, but there is a lot of flatness to them so I am hoping that part of their heritage enables them to produce well here despite the heat.

I'm always overrun with pole beans in October. I just wish they'd produce as well in July and August as they do prior to that (if planted early enough) or after the heat drops in autumn.

The list of bean varieties I'm growing this year is huge. I hope I don't run out of room for them before I get them all planted.

Dawn