Why I Love Filet-Style Pole Beans (& Why Pole Green Beans Are Better Than Bush)

Find three reasons to grow poles beans instead of bush, and six reasons why tender filet-style pole beans like Emerite and Fortex are the best! These climbing beans are dependable in the garden and easy to cook with making them one of the most prolific, cost-saving vegetables to grow at home. If you want beans that truly earn their space in the garden, these varieties are hard to beat.

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Note: I first wrote this article on my favorite green bean, Emerite, 15 years ago (!). I updated it in 2016, adding another variety I had started growing with the Emerite, Fortex. I’m updating again in 2026 because I now grow a third variety of filet-style pole beans. Also as a reminder, I’ve always still grown a few bush beans to harvest earlier – it doesn’t have to be an either/or! Read on for all the details!

Pole beans vs. bush green beans – on which side do you fall? When I first started gardening, I grew bush beans like everyone else seemed to. But one year I wanted a pretty bean tee-pee in one bed, so I grew some pole beans.

And wow, was I in the dark about pole beans – especially tender, stringless, wonderful French filet green beans! Here are a few things I learned in my unplanned experiment:

3 Reasons to Grow Pole Beans vs. Bush Green Beans

1. Pole beans are easier to harvest than bush beans. With bush beans you have to bend over, man-handle the plant (sometimes pulling it up mistakenly), all in the effort to find those beans. Once pole beans grow, it’s just a matter of standing and picking them conveniently at your waist to head level.
2. Bush beans produce for only a short period, requiring succession sowings to get beans over a whole growing season. Poles take a bit longer to get going, but they produce (mostly) for a whole season.
3. Cleaner harvest – bush beans are often a lot dirtier than pole beans because they flop onto the ground (most of the time I don’t even have to wash pole beans before freezing without blanching!).

So now I plant mostly rows of pole beans, although I still plant some bush beans to be able to harvest earlier beans (pole beans take a bit longer to start producing).

Filet vs. Standard Pole Beans

Over the years I’ve tried many types of pole (and bush) beans including the super popular Kentucky and Blue Lake (and Kentucky Blue cross) varieties, but I’ve found them to be stringy and tough with inconsistent production, at least where I live. But when I discovered French filet green beans, there was no going back – they are always tender and stringless.

Out of all the varieties I’ve tired my favorite variety to grow is Emerite. I’ve grown them since discovering them years ago, even though it seems harder each year to find seed companies that carry them. (While you can save the seeds to plant the next year, we eat most of them into the fall, so it’s hard to remember to let some grow to seed-saving stage! I do try to, though.).

I also have started growing Fortex, which grows longer, but still stays tender, and most recently a yellow filet pole bean, Monte Gusto. I grow the three together on one 12-foot long trellis and it’s perfection in timing, harvests, and color.

But here’s the mystery to me – why don’t more people grow these beans?

6 Reasons to Grow Filet Pole Green Beans (Like Emerite, Fortex, & Monte Gusto)

1. Filet style beans can be picked at all stages. From a 4-inch thin filet style, which is great at the beginning of the season when you can’t wait for those first beans, all the way up to a mature 7 to 8-inch rounder bean.

2. Filet beans are never stringy or tough. Even when they’ve been left to mature to a large bean. Never. (TIP: This is why I think my unblanched frozen green beans are better than blanched – I’ve always used tender filet green beans which don’t stand up to blanching like the tougher string beans do.)

3. They produce a lot during the main season. Every year my 10 to 12-foot row has produced enough for us to eat tons of fresh (whether that is simply roasted or with caramelized onions & tomatoes) and still have 10 quart bags in the freezer for the winter.

4. They produce until the frost. Emerite may slow down after the large main harvest, even losing leaves in the hot last days of August – but don’t give up on them! As soon as the weather turns “fall-ish” with cooler temps and some rain, they will start leafing out again and producing flowers and beans- all the way until the first frost. Fortex produces through warmer weather, too, and usually continues while Emerite is taking a break, making them perfect to grow together! The Monte Gusto I grow in the middle of them also seems to pick up slack when either are taking a break. I’ve found it’s really good to grow a couple of different varieties for just this reason.

And I LOVE eating fresh green beans in October! (The bush beans? They are gone. Done for. Outta here.)

5. They are so much easier to pick than bush beans. Um, do you like to hunch over, struggling to find the ripe beans on a 2-foot tall plant- often damaging the plant in the process – or stand up and pluck the beans you can easily see are ready and hanging almost at eye level? That’s a no-brainer for me, especially with my creaky back.

6. You only have to plant pole beans once. No succession planting is needed like with bush beans. It’s true that poles take a little longer to start producing, so I do plant a few bush beans, like I mentioned, at the same time to give us the earliest harvest, but there’s just no comparison to the longevity of pole beans.

BONUS: Emerite bean blossoms are pretty!

TIP: If you’re like me and prefer tender, stringless green beans, then be sure to choose a filet variety whether you grow pole beans OR bush beans. My favorite filet bush bean varieties are Maxibel and Tavera. (I usually companion plant about 5 of these early in the garden to get a quicker first bean harvest.)

Have I convinced you to grow pole beans?

Where to buy filet pole bean seeds

• Fortex at Territorial Seed
• Emerite at Territorial Seed
• Monte Gusto at Territorial Seed

I’ve also found Fortex at Pinetree Garden Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds (who has Monte Gusto as well, but not Emerite). The only other places I’ve found for Emerite beans is Vermont Bean Seeds and Renee’s Garden.

More Easy Gardening Tips

• Steps to Starting a Vegetable Garden
• Organic Vegetable Gardening 101
• Simple & Easy Gardening Tips and Techniques

This article was originally published in October of 2011. It has been updated in 2016 and 2026.

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