Last year I strung up my beans with a few posts and some wire between them. I was considering using sticks to make tepees for them to grow up. Anyone tried this? How do you run your beans?

I quit growing runners several years ago and now only plant bush beans. To me, runners are a pain in the patuty. I can get 3 plantings of bush bean a year without the hassle of trying to rip old runner vines off a fence to grow the next bach. Blue Lake and Tenderite are extremely good bush beans.

We are changing to bush beans this year.  White half runners are good but they are just to much work.  I figured we would get two crops and net as much if not more of a harvest without all the extra work.

Last year I used all scrap wood and wire to string them. Once they were done I rolled it all up and off to the dump. I am not concerned with that end, besides I am using some heirloom varieties this year.

I also only plant bush beans. If you don't want the hastle of string beans plant blue lake bush beans you will never look back..

yup, same here

this year we are going to plant them next to the fence and staple twine across in diffrent ways for them to grow up and around. when ur done for the year u just cut the twine and toss them all in a compost pile. the easyest clean up

stuck

bush beans

+1

This.  Topcrop here, they don't get stringy if you pick them a few days late.

-Slice

This is funny...



I bought a couple packets of beans a few weeks ago getting ready for the planting season.  Wound up with bush beans by accident...  Planning on putting them in a small raised bed on the side of the house.  Good sun and good drainiage.  Wanted pole beans, but spent a whole dollar on the wrong pack.  Have to get some more I guess.  



Anyone have planting reccomendations???



Thanks!



Drew

Blue Lakes bush beans are my favorite.  Plus, I hate to string beans.

We put them on the chicken wire fences around the gardens. By the end of the season the fences look like hedges lol

Hi,

I grow my pole beans two different ways.  

I plant my corn and wait til it gets about 2 feet high, then I go back and plant white half runner beans in the same rows.  The beans will run up the corn stalks.

The other thing I do is use flower easel/stands.  You know those green metal easel-looking things that are used in funerals to hang flower arrangements on?  Well, there is a cemetery here that removes all flower arrangements one week after each funeral.  They fold up the flower stands and allow people to pick them up.  (I think flower shops get them to re-use.)  I get the tallest ones (5-6 ft.) and make rows with them in the garden and plant my pole beans under them.  I also put stands here and there around the yard and make bean tee-pees.  Flowers look great on a tee-pee, too!

I also use these stands to hold up my tomatoes.  But I have to tie my tomatoes to the easel.

Cool thing about these stands is that they fold flat for storage.  They have a little hook at the top (where the flower arrangement hangs) that is great for hanging the hose when you get tired of hand watering.  And, they're painted green.  

I saw fold-flat-teepees in a gardening catalog for $29.99 each!

Here is a link to a picture of the easel.  Don't buy them.  They're expensive!  Just check with your local cemetery office.
http://www.fss.com/index.php?CategoryID=350000&SectionID=353500&PageNo=2&ProductID=30006460

Had a friend one time that thought it was gross using stands from the cemetery.  I told her that they are still holding up beautiful flowers and the folks would probably like that.

I grown bush as well as pole beans. The poles grow via the three sisters method.
Corn goes in, pole bean grows up the corn stalk, squash grows between the corn
stalks to act as a ground cover/mulch and blocks weeds. The beans also put
nitrogen into the soil which corn uses in abundance.

I don't remember pole beans being that much of a hassle, but its been a long time since I was a kid at home helping in the garden. For the life of me, I cannot recall just how we planted them, but I am thinking maybe poles with twine strung between them. I remember they were on one end of the garden though, but I just cannot visualize how they were setup.

My mom said she is going to plant some Ky Wonder pole beans this year. She always liked them.

I did pole beans in my sfg last year, this year I'm mostly doing bush beans but am going to try something different with the pole beans as well.

I'm going to plant pole beans in rows 1 & 3. In row 2, I'm going to plant some buttercrunch lettuce. Two poles will be anchored at each end of row 2 with a wire connecting them. I'll run some twine down from the wire to the outside edges of rows 1 & 3 for the pole beans to grow up.

I'm hoping that the beans will adequately shade the lettuce so that it does OK during the summer.

I'm also using the three sisters method this year in a 3'x3' SFG. I have the space, but not the sun light for much more than that and another 4'x4' SFG as I have a lot of trees in an urban area.

9 plant per square foot. Pack 'em in and stagger your plantings. You'll never go back to pole beans.

My mom grows all kinds of beans and won't give up her stick beans for canning. The hulls are excellent and she thinks they can better and hold better (don't get tough) as her bush beans (which my folks always called "bunch" beans
).



We use tobacco stalks saved from last year's crop, or we used tobacco sticks––in a four-prong teepee that spans the two rows. The sticks are "stuck" right in the row with the beans, and tied at the top with a bit of baling twine.  Once the vines start up them, it's a very strong structure. I guess it's trouble, but it sure makes a pretty––and a productive––garden, and so much easier to pick. PLUS, it gives the golden garden spiders a good place to spin. And they keep the bad bugs down.
 Of course, we had a free supply of bean sticks, because we grew tobacco.



I'm no expert on bean varieties, so I guess it's what you like best. I know the old timers around here are very opinionated about their beans––growing certain kinds for certain purposes. I figure it pays to listen to that experience since I'm not much of a bean grower (I don't grow to can or freeze yet, just to eat for that season).




Kitties

Ummmm, thats what I said. I gave up runners (pole beans) several years ago.