getting a jump on pole beans this year
 

last year was a bean fiasco for me.

i had planted over a hundred pole bean seeds of several different varieties, and maybe 12 came up due to cold rainy weather right after planting. should have paid better attention to the forecast.
so this year i started some seeds in doors, about 14 varieties 5 or 6 seeds of each. six varieties are new to me, and others haven't been grown in a few years, and need to be regrown. i am also trying to regrow a bush roma bean that i haven't grown in 10 years or so. seeds were just laying around. don't remember the name of them. they came in a trade with striato di italia a really nice looking and tasting zucchini. some of the beans send up little half runners.
the new varieties i'll grow around tomato cages. i poke one in the ground and put another upside down on top of it, lash it together with rope, and secure it to a stake to keep the whole thing from toppling over. you can plant a small amount of beans in a circle around the cages, and let them grow up. works pretty well. then if the beans do well, i like them, and most importantly, can i save the seeds they get a bigger space in the garden in the future.

i was going to get the garden roto tilled today, but a thunder storm came off the lake and hammered us with rain, and hail, so that will have to wait.



keith

Good luck with your beans. I have found that if I use a thermometer and check the soil temperature and wait until it is 63° or 64° degrees then I have enough of a cushion if the weather turns bad on me.

Wishing you luck with your beans this year, Keith. I tried 8 varieties of pole beans last year and about 8 new ones this year. I'm using tomato cages in the same way you described to support some wimpy-vined tomatoes that I'll keep pruned, but we set up cattle panel raised about 2' on metal stakes on the north side of one of our beds for the beans this year. When the rain stops I want to add a strip of old plastic fencing material on the bottom so the vines can climb sooner...or maybe I'll just put a bamboo stake by each plant and attach them to the panel.

I started one plant of each variety indoors on the same day as I started seeds in the ground because I wasn't sure the weather/soil was warm enough yet, but they both came up and are about the same size now. Thanks, Doug, for the temperature tip- I can use that next year to make sure I get them started asap.

kath

i too got a head start on pole beans this year. for the 1st time i started seeds inside in 12 or 16 oz cups. i started them on 5/6 along with winter squash and cukes. while this date seems to be fine for the winter squashes and cukes, it was way too early for pole beans! i had no idea they'd germinate so fast, typically i direct seed and wait and it seems to take more than the 4 or 5 days it did in the cups, more like 7-10 days in the ground.

i planned to put them out on memorial day weekend which is when i'd normally seed them. instead due to their size i put them out friday 5/18. the ground was a little cool and this is almost 2 weeks earlier than normal but the plants were 3 1/2 to 4" tall so i was concerned about holding them another 12-14 days. they seem to be doing fine.

3 of the 4 varieties are from you keith with my old standby favorite that i sent to you. i may be picking by mid july vs early august this year.

tom

By the way, how much space do you leave between plants in a row? I googled and found everything from 4"-12" and on another thread here 18".

kath

I've used everything from 2" to 6". It depends on which particular seed germinate. I think 6" works well.

I am growing 4 varieties of pole beans this year, on stacked tomato cages also! I started doing this because I ran out of trellis poles, and kept doing it because it works.

Kath, about 4 inches works for me, but I agree with Doug9345, it depends on how they germinate. I always plant thick and thin a little.

I like 4-6", too. I usually plant 4 or 9/square foot these days, or one every 3 inches in a zig-zag pattern in rows. I prefer square foot, with this pattern

-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
-------------------
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x

with the ------being the trellis holding them up.

j

I haven't so far planted any runner beans. They have performed so poorly the last few years I've lost heart. The runner beans I normally plant are McCaslin's. They are a flatened bean with great taste and the best crop I have ever had of them was one year at the first of may when the beans were up maybe 2 inches high and it snowed a few inches on them.

For trellis I have 2 4x4 posts 10 feet tall and 4 feet in the ground. I have telephone cable tied and stretched at the top and near the bottom of each post spanning 100 feet. At 33 and 66 feet I have 2 inch angle iron driven into the ground leaving a couple inches exposed and to that I have old bed rails clamped the cable is wired to the top and bottom of these rails.

The hard part of all this is retying the bailing twine every year. 1 every foot tied at the top and bottom. I planted half runner beans along it this go round. Once they are up and running, ( no pun intended ) I may go back and plant runners with them.

BTW, I didn't do so this evening because of an incoming storm, But most of the time I soak my bean seed in water with a small drop of dish soap ( Okra too ) for at least 4 hours and sometimes overnight but I have to be careful because I use a planter and if the seed sprouts, seems like the planter will ruin most of them.

Has anyone tried Scarlet runners ? I'm looking for input on them please. Thanks and good luck on your gardens !

Thanks for the input about spacing- I think I'll keep mine as they are and see how they do since they are now spaced at a greater distance than any of you mentioned. It's interesting how many different techniques there are for supporting them.

I got lucky and found one of those round bean towers on eBay a little over a year ago for a really good price. I do about 4" spacing and can fit 24 pole bean plants on it. The beans are just starting to come up, and I have spinach growing in the center of it that should be ready to harvest before the beans get too tall. Last year I lost track of which variety was on which string and they all looked alike while they were still green. This year I'm only growing two types and marked the top and bottom of each string for one of them with a blue piece of tape.

I started some beans inside last week and they have just come up. Having never grown them before, I wonder what the minimum workable container size might be? And do I put one seedling per container, or multiple? (I think I have the seedlings started in batches of 3 so not sure how smart it is to separate them.)

tom

the 3 varieties i got from you are planted.

i have always gone with 6 inch spacing for pole beans. anything greater than that is ok. darryl jones goes with 12 inch spacing. the bulk of my beans grow up fencing attached to t posts hammered into the ground. i have also used 8 ft furring strips, but the problem with those is they rot after a few years, and you run the risk of the whole set up falling over on a windy day. the tomato cages you can set in any small spaces, and you can isolate the beans somewhat if you are concerned about crossing.


keith

[QUOTE=JohnWayne;276719]I haven't so far planted any runner beans. They have performed so poorly the last few years I've lost heart. The runner beans I normally plant are McCaslin's. They are a flatened bean with great taste and the best crop I have ever had of them was one year at the first of may when the beans were up maybe 2 inches high and it snowed a few inches on them.

For trellis I have 2 4x4 posts 10 feet tall and 4 feet in the ground. I have telephone cable tied and stretched at the top and near the bottom of each post spanning 100 feet. At 33 and 66 feet I have 2 inch angle iron driven into the ground leaving a couple inches exposed and to that I have old bed rails clamped the cable is wired to the top and bottom of these rails.

The hard part of all this is retying the bailing twine every year. 1 every foot tied at the top and bottom. I planted half runner beans along it this go round. Once they are up and running, ( no pun intended ) I may go back and plant runners with them.

BTW, I didn't do so this evening because of an incoming storm, But most of the time I soak my bean seed in water with a small drop of dish soap ( Okra too ) for at least 4 hours and sometimes overnight but I have to be careful because I use a planter and if the seed sprouts, seems like the planter will ruin most of them.

Has anyone tried Scarlet runners ? I'm looking for input on them please. Thanks and good luck on your gardens ![/QUOTE]
Have you tried Insuk Wang Kong? I have a bunch of seeds. I haven't been able to get them to set here in AZ but they seem quite heat tolerant.
Beautiful plants, I've grown them for the hummingbirds. I can send you some seeds if you like.

Last year was a washout for my beans... literally. Way too much rain in late Spring / early Summer. My working hours were extended, so even when it dried out a little, I couldn't plant. Finally got some Emerite into the ground over the July 4th weekend, and was able to freeze plenty; but no dry seed. Too bad, because it was a warm, late Fall - would have been great for seed crops.

This year I'm growing 13 varieties of common beans, 2 limas, 2 runner beans, 2 adzuki, 4 yardlongs, 3 cowpeas, 2 mung beans (yellow & black), and about 20 varieties of soybeans. Usually I plan on the Memorial Day weekend to plant beans, but the soil is dry & much warmer than usual. I started planting beans today, and will continue over the next few days. The limas, adzuki, and yardlongs get started indoors, so I will be planting at night too. :?:

Keith, looks like the rain jumped over me, and landed on you. Still dry here... perfect planting weather.

About bean spacing... I think it depends upon conditions, variety, and what you are growing them for. Some of my snaps have fairly wispy vines (Emerite, Fortex) so 6" (or 2 @ 12") works great for them. But for most pole beans, my default spacing is 12". Since I grow many varieties for seed, I want the healthiest plants - and the largest seed - possible. At wider spacing, I get a 300-to-1 increase or better, and the seed is very large & fat. When I used closer spacing, there was more trouble with foliar diseases, and the seed was visibly smaller.

For pole beans, you can also match your plants to the trellis, to a point. Crowding them will reduce the height of the vines. Crowding reduces air flow though, and can promote the spread of disease; if you have had trouble with rust, it would probably not be a good idea.

For rambling bush beans & half runners, I use 2 seeds @ 12", and don't thin. Smaller bush beans are planted 2 @ 6", and not thinned. I prefer to plant in hills of beans, as opposed to rows, because my soil crusts over, and the groups of beans find it easier to break through.