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Can someone who grows dwarf Fr beans rather than climbers please tell me why they do it????? Having looked after my neighbour's veg patch last year while she was on 2 wks holiday, her dwarf beans really drove me potty! All dirty - (mud-splashed and/or dusty); mostly pre-chewed by slugs and/or snails and oh! the back-aching job of picking the sorry specimens! It was sheer joy to come home and pick my own clean, uneaten climbers (Cobra - delicious!) in a standing-up position - and without stepping on any of them! (Also, I swear I had at least ten times the crop from one tenth of the space!) The dwarfs must have something wonderful going for them for folks to put themselves through that much hassle! So - what am I missing? ???   

Know what you mean grandma!! but I grow both, I suppose they are easy cos you dont have to make a frame and if you mulch them they wont get dirty........

I grow them as some of the beans I like don't come as climbers, especially Kenyan bean Safari. Plus I grow several  heirloom beans. All beans taste different and have different textures as do tomatoes, it is the taste that determines which I grow. XX Jeannine

I grew dwarf french for the first time last year and had the same problems, so am trying climbing french this year (prefer the taste to runners)

See your point, Jeannine, with all your unusual varieties  :-* but  I'm just talking about the ordinary ones - and grown in a very limited space, too! :o 

There is more choice in varieties with dwarf varieties although Cobra and Blue Lake are good a good climbing varieties.

Incidently I grow both climbers & dwarf!

Agree with Grandma - climbers much easier & more prolific. The only time I bother with dwarf beans is to grow them early under glass: it is nice to get a few beans in late May or early June, but it's a lot of work!

And Jeannine, I haven't got anywhere near exhausting the heirloom climbers I want to grow yet, so heirloom dwarfs (Is that good English?) is an unexplored world.

But climbers every time as the basic crop (especially for beginners, or those with limited space).

I had no problem with dwarf last year, pushed them in the ground threw on loads of water and they grew like mad, some were chewed on the floor but 99% success. ;D ;D ;D

The difference between Dwarf and Climbers,

You don,t have to bend down to pick the climbers,