getting a jump on pole beans this year

[Tracydr]

I have some hyacinth beans growing on chciken wire wrapped around the support pole/beams of my porch. Not exactly sure what I should do when they reach the top, which will be soon, along with the passion vines. Maybe run some wires along the cross beams to run along? I can hardly wait to see the combinations of hyacinth flowers, bean seeds and passion flowers, if I get any passion flowers! I also have jasmine growing, although its a spring flower. The scent is heavenly.
Trying to attract the hummers to my back porch. I actually have a nest right now, on a wind chime on the back porch, right above the doggy door with two little babies!
I also have some hyacinth bean growing up a palm tree, using some twines I wrapped up high and let hang down.
My long beans and Rattlesnakes ( first pole beans I've ever gotten too grow, crossing my fingers I get actual beans before its too hot!), I have on cattle or CRW panels.
I've had no luck with beans or real cucumbers so far. Seems like the soil is too cool, then it gets hot too fast. I may try this fall. Armenian cukes and long beans do pretty well.

[Fusion_power]

Normal pole beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris) do best if you plant 3 beans per hill with 12 inches between hills in the row and 4 feet between rows. The reason for this is so that you can use a hoe to clean out weeds between the hills. This works out to 3 seed per ft or 1 bean every 4 inches if you average out the spacing.

Runner Beans (Phaseolus Coccineus) and butter beans (Phaseolus Lunatus) need a lot more room. I plant butter beans with 3 beans per hill and about 2 feet between hills in the row. I use the same spacing for Runner Beans but put 1 or 2 seed per hill.

It is important to move beans to a new area of the garden each year, otherwise nutrient extraction and disease build up will cut production. This means the trellis must be easily movable. I build my trellis with 8 ft tall T-posts with a post every 25 feet in the row and with heavy duty anchors on each end. I stretch a wire at the top of the posts and another about 15 inches from the ground. This leaves a nice gap beneath the bottom wire which allows weeding. Bean runners will readily cross a gap of 15 inches. I zig-zag hay baling twine from the top to the bottom wire so that there is a string for the beans to climb about every 2 to 2.5 feet. From start to finish, I can put up a 120 ft long trellis in just under an hour and take it down at the end of the season in about the same time.

DarJones

[tjg911]

kath,

i used to plant the seed 4" then 6" apart. you can crowd them but that's way too close! pole beans, at the ones i have grown, branch furiously and turn into a jungle that's hard to find the beans in. i use a trellis that's 7' 8" long. on 1 side i put 4 plants, just 4 and they'll fill in so much it'll be a jungle. the days of 10 or 20 seeds on the 1 side are over, picking was absolutely miserable and i don't need that many beans, 4 plants are plenty.

tom

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by johnnytwofingers

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.)

this is the 1st year i started them in a container. mine got to 3 1/2 to 4" in a 12 or 16 oz cup, 1 plant per cup. at this point i decided that if they got taller they might be outgrowing the cup for their roots and their height. their roots had grown to the bottom of the cup so i think my judgement was sound. you can start more than 1 seed in a cup, i put 3, but i cut out 2 as it was too crowded (if you want a group of 2 or 3 that's ok i did not). if i knew i'd get 100% germination i'd have put just 1 bean in each cup. i would not separate them, beans are not too keen on having their roots disturbed. i was very careful getting them out of the cup and into the ground trying to minimize any disturbance to their roots.

tom

[kath]

Originally Posted by tjg911

kath,

i used to plant the seed 4" then 6" apart. you can crowd them but that's way too close! pole beans, at the ones i have grown, branch furiously and turn into a jungle that's hard to find the beans in. i use a trellis that's 7' 8" long. on 1 side i put 4 plants, just 4 and they'll fill in so much it'll be a jungle. the days of 10 or 20 seeds on the 1 side are over, picking was absolutely miserable and i don't need that many beans, 4 plants are plenty.

tom

Thanks for weighing in, Tom. I have 16' of trellis space but 13 varieties of pole beans. Is it possible to trial a bean with only one plant?

kath

[tjg911]

sure but i suspect planting closely may cause them to cross if you intend to save seeds. i read here that all beans are op so they may well cross when next to each other but i'm not an expert on that. i have saved seeds over the years for a variety i grow and it never crossed with kentucky wonder or some of the others (i have a 2 oz packet of kw so i never saved the kw seeds). planting them 1' apart will work but i wouldn't want to dig thru that jungle come august! been there too many years, that's why i just grow 4-6 plants vs 12-20 plants.

cukes go on the other side of the trellis and again i learned that 2 or 3 plants are plenty, they create a jungle too and produce pounds per day. i sometime put 1 pole bean plant on the cuke side but with just 4 plants and almost an 8' length i can put 4 in on 1 side.

tom

[kath]

Just realized that I missed posts #11-18! Thanks for all the information about spacing and support. I think all the beans that I have are pole beans except for the Gigandes from DarJones. Still, I'd hate to lose the whole bunch to leaf disease and have nothing. It's becoming clear that I'm going to have to thin the row, though. Does anyone know if Kentucky Wonder Brown is the same as Kentucky Wonder? The seeds looked the same. If it's really the same bean, then I have one less variety. I am growing Emerite but I don't know if any of the others will be wispy- all of them are under a foot tall but I guess I can go out and compare them to Emerite now to get an idea.

The trellis is one of 4 we put up this year on the north ends of beds and by next year we hope to have 2 more done on the remaining two sections, so rotating the beans won't be any problem. They are a permanent installation- at least that's what we're hoping, so I hope they work as we anticipate.

The soil is pretty decent as the trellis is in the oldest part of the garden so it's had over 15 years of compost and other additions made to it and I made sure that I dumped a lot of compost in the row and worked it in before the beans went in.

I'm going out to take a look.

kath

[kath]

Our posts crossed while I was composing, Tom. I don't have any intentions of seed saving this year. Figured I'd narrow it down to our favorite 2 and only save seed from one each year. Have to play that part by ear. Lucky for me, that I plant and DH picks- the strawberries, peas, beans and blueberries anyway.

kath

[tjg911]

[QUOTE=kath;276911 Does anyone know if Kentucky Wonder Brown is the same as Kentucky Wonder? The seeds looked the same. [/QUOTE]

i grow kw each year and the seeds are brown. i don't know if kw brown is a different bean, i never heard of it but that doesn't mean anything.

tom

[kath]

Originally Posted by tjg911

i grow kw each year and the seeds are brown. i don't know if kw brown is a different bean, i never heard of it but that doesn't mean anything.

tom

Well, I got ruthless yesterday after these posts and I decided they must be the same so I just kept the healthiest plant and cut the others out. There's lots of room between the plants now and I'll just grow the varieties that didn't fit next year- I still have enough seed left. Thanks for your help.

kath

[johnnytwofingers]

Originally Posted by tjg911

this is the 1st year i started them in a container. mine got to 3 1/2 to 4" in a 12 or 16 oz cup, 1 plant per cup. at this point i decided that if they got taller they might be outgrowing the cup for their roots and their height. their roots had grown to the bottom of the cup so i think my judgement was sound. you can start more than 1 seed in a cup, i put 3, but i cut out 2 as it was too crowded (if you want a group of 2 or 3 that's ok i did not). if i knew i'd get 100% germination i'd have put just 1 bean in each cup. i would not separate them, beans are not too keen on having their roots disturbed. i was very careful getting them out of the cup and into the ground trying to minimize any disturbance to their roots.

tom

I started my beans in cups, but they have already pretty much reached the limit of the cup. I am doing balcony gardening, so mine won't be going into the ground. Can anyone recommend the minimum size of a pot they should go into for their permanent home for the season? (I have 3 seedlings per starter cup, and they don't look seperable in most cases, but I could sacrifice some of them if 3 in one pot is too much).

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by johnnytwofingers

I started my beans in cups, but they have already pretty much reached the limit of the cup. I am doing balcony gardening, so mine won't be going into the ground. Can anyone recommend the minimum size of a pot they should go into for their permanent home for the season? (I have 3 seedlings per starter cup, and they don't look seperable in most cases, but I could sacrifice some of them if 3 in one pot is too much).

You didn't say if they're pole or bush beans. I think you might be able to eek out 3 in a 3 gallon pot if they're pole beans. I'd only try 2 in a 3 gallon pot if they're bush beans. If you use 5 gallon pots (more idealic), three of either type should be doable with the extra space. You must remember bush beans grow wider than a pole bean. Either way, space them out equally in the pot...a cups worth transplanted to the middle will be too crowded.

[kath]

Originally Posted by johnnytwofingers

I started my beans in cups, but they have already pretty much reached the limit of the cup. I am doing balcony gardening, so mine won't be going into the ground. Can anyone recommend the minimum size of a pot they should go into for their permanent home for the season? (I have 3 seedlings per starter cup, and they don't look seperable in most cases, but I could sacrifice some of them if 3 in one pot is too much).

The square foot gardening recommendation for bush beans is 9/sq.ft. Bush beans can be planted close together- of course leaf disease could be more of an issue with less air circulation, but I would think if they are fertilized well you should keep this spacing in mind no matter what size container you use. You're not going to get many beans on a given day from 3 bush bean plants. The first year I tried a sq. ft. garden, I planted only one square (9 plants) and it took a couple days to get a meal's worth of beans for us. Oh, and I would definitely would not try to separate them but try to disturb the roots as little as possible. jmo

kath

[Ted Posey]

John, I have used clothesline cable between T-bars spaced about every 20 ft with twine between top and bottom cables. I tie only the very ends. I wrap the twine over both cables with about 12 -14 inch spaceing beween them. My plants spaced about 10-12 inches have no problems climbing the twine even tho it's not straight up and down but at an angle. The T-bars are midway between two rows of beans.
Only takes about 30 mins to apply or remove the twine on a 100 ft row.

[johnnytwofingers]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

You didn't say if they're pole or bush beans. I think you might be able to eek out 3 in a 3 gallon pot if they're pole beans. I'd only try 2 in a 3 gallon pot if they're bush beans. If you use 5 gallon pots (more idealic), three of either type should be doable with the extra space. You must remember bush beans grow wider than a pole bean. Either way, space them out equally in the pot...a cups worth transplanted to the middle will be too crowded.

From the package, my beans are: Bean (Bush) Tendergreen Improved

I'll attach a picture of how I have them planted.....