Pole Beans - how many to each pole?

[fortyonenorth]

I'm planting pole beans on a 4-pole tee-pee. How many beans per pole is recommended?

[lurley]

I plant two, one on each side of each teepee pole.

[tjg911]

i grow mine on a trellis. i have found over the years pole beans produce vast amounts of beans! VAST!

my trellis is 8' long and A shaped at each end, it is made of pipe. i put an 8' X 5' piece of crw on both sides and a 2' piece of 2" X 4" welded wire fence from the crw down to the ground.

i put 2 cukes plants and ONE pole bean plant on one side and typically 4 pole bean plants on the other side. experience has showed me that if i put just 2 plants on that other side i'd have plenty of beans with a total of 3 plants.

both cukes and pole beans grow vigorously and fill both sides with their respective growth to the point it is hard to find the cukes but especially the pole beans, it is a jungle! now i am just feeding me and i still give away and freeze pole beans.

tom

[Tormato]

Three to four per pole is what is mostly recommended.

I go with five or six per pole with 6 inch spacing, as long as it's not a variety with huge leaves (like Garrafal Oro).

Tormato

[kath]

Last year I had the same 4-pole teepee setup and planted 4-6 beans/pole- I can only say that you don't want to plant that many. They became an impenetrable mass of beans and foliage halfway up, not to mention how you couldn't find anything when they flopped over and headed back down.

This year I have them climbing a trellis and planted them 12" apart along the row...very neat so far.

Oops...our posts crossed, Tormato.

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks for the replies. I'm starting late this year, I know, but that end-of-May planting window was chocked full this year. I also read somewhere that starting beans in July helps them to avoid the early onslaught of pests. We'll see...

Cheers!

[kath]

I planted a trial of 8 kinds of pole beans on May 7th and only 2 varieties, Emerite and Rattlesnake, are producing so far...and just beginning, at that. Put some bush beans in earlier, so we had some beans for a while, but they've been finished for a while. Next year I'll put another planting of bush beans in a few weeks after the first. Guess I didn't realize they took so much longer to produce. Last year we grew Fortex and Kentucky Blue on the teepees- Kentucky Blue was a Japanese beetle magnet. So far, this year, they're preferring the sweet corn and Rose of Sharon bushes. The Mexican bean beetles are also more fond of the corn than the beans. In general, we have more trouble with leaf diseases on beans than bug pests.

Hope you enjoy your bean harvest!

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by kath

Last year I had the same 4-pole teepee setup and planted 4-6 beans/pole- I can only say that you don't want to plant that many. They became an impenetrable mass of beans and foliage halfway up, not to mention how you couldn't find anything when they flopped over and headed back down.

This year I have them climbing a trellis and planted them 12" apart along the row...very neat so far.

Oops...our posts crossed, Tormato.

No problem on the crossed post. Mine also crossed the other day with Tom's, who posted about 30 seconds before me.

It's easy to find beans in an impenetrable jungle, as long as they're yellow, or purple, or magenta, etc...

Tormato

[tjg911]

yes there's a lot to be said for yellow and purple pole beans!

tom

[kath]

Originally Posted by Tormato

It's easy to find beans in an impenetrable jungle, as long as they're yellow, or purple, or magenta, etc...

Tormato

Aaah...that's the trick! Kentucky Blue & Fortex not so easy.

[Tormato]

The quantity of beans on a truss can also be a factor. While I haven't tried Kentucky Blue, I know that Fortex grows in pairs and sometimes singles. Rattlesnake (green and purple pods) and Jeminez (green and magenta) can have 5-7 pods on a truss, which is easier to spot.

Tormato

[tjg911]

oh that's good to hear, maybe jeminez will be easier to find.

the yellow pole beans i sent to you (tormato) are easy to spot! too bad they did not germinate, my 1 plant looks like it is going to die. i'm getting fresh seed from the source so if you want i can send you seeds assuming they send me more than 5 or 6.

tom