Chinese Heirloom Qing Bian Romano Pole Beans-Flat Beans with 10-12″ Pods; AKA青扁豆,刀豆,芸豆

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In spring of 2021, we wanted to plant beans in our home garden. There were so many bean varieties to choose, so which ones should we pick?

First, we eliminated bush beans. Bush beans do not need trellis support but do need more place (which we don’t have). Also, bush beans produce a lot of beans at once– good for canning, but we wanted to choose high yield beans that produce continuously until frost. So the answer was pole beans.

But then, which pole bean variety? One of our friends recommended Qing Bian Romano Pole Beans. The stringless flat bean pods are 10-12″ long and 1″ wide. It’s high yield and delicious. In asian grocery stores it costs $5 per pound. High yield, tasty and high value– what’s not to like?

Let’s review how they performed in 2021.

May 15th, Germination–Several of our friends and I tried this variety of pole beans for the first time in 2021. My friends started theirs earlier than me and complained that the germination rate is very low, only about 30%. While other pole beans’ (Kentucky Wonders and Rattlesnake beans) rate was 60-70%. I did some research and found that it was because the beans were over soaked. Here was the Youtube video about bean germination: Do not over soak bean seeds. Also, same as other pole beans, it requires warm weather to germinate: 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit. So the seeds were soaked for 2 hours, kept warm in wet paper towel. The germination rate was 70% (14 germinated out of 20 seeds). Then we planted the seeds in 4″ nursery pots.

June 5th, transplanted all 14 hardened off seedling plants to the raised bed, spaced 6″ apart. I waited until the seedlings were strong enough to transplant because I heard that pill-bugs love to nibble on the young bean plants. Still, only 9 Roma pole beans survived. Here is the picture taken on June 25th.

The bean plants grew fast after being transplanted. The first flower showed on June 30th.

July 8th, lots of bean pods began showing up a week after flowering.

July 15th, started to pick the tender, stringless Roma beans.

We picked 18 lbs of Qing Bian Romano pole beans between July 15th and Oct 18th. These 9 Qing Bian bean plants brought us several dishes every week. Here is the harvest log.

July: 2.43 lbs.

August: 7.7 lbs.

September: 4.86 lbs.

October: 2.87 lbs.

Compared to China Long cucumber plants, Pole bean maintenance is easier.

Between May and September we applied worm tea once every two weeks.

Applied Schultz Slow-Release Bloom Fertilizer (12-24-12), 1/8 teaspoon per plant on June 15th and 1/4 teaspoon per plant on September 10th.

Water every 2-3 days deeply. Better to water the root/soil in the morning, not on the leaves. Optionally, you can install underground clay water pots so less watering is needed.

Some improvement to be done after last year’s experiment.

1. Space 10″ instead of 6″. The vines were too crowed and made it hard to harvest bean pods.
2. Fertilizer once with high phosphorus plant foods in mid August. The yield dropped significantly in September.
3. To prevent disease, spray need oil once in mid August, once in mid September (1.5 teaspoon neem oil per quart of water, add several drops of Dr. Bronner’s Organic Castile Liquid Soap).