2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[Zeedman]

I spent about an hour yesterday cutting privet branches for poles. These are similar to what I’m going to try this year.View attachment 39965View attachment 39966View attachment 39967

A-frame trellises... that is a good use of home-grown poles. A well-supported system, especially when braced on the ends as in the top photo. Little digging or pounding involved, but a lot of tying.

@Artichoke Lover Is that a whole row of chives in the second photo???

 

[Artichoke Lover]

A-frame trellises... that is a good use of home-grown poles. A well-supported system, especially when braced on the ends as in the top photo. Little digging or pounding involved, but a lot of tying.

@Artichoke Lover Is that a whole row of chives in the second photo???

No idea. Just an example I pulled off the internet. My garden is not that pretty looking. This is my first year putting poll beans in the big garden so it’s the first year trying the A-frame trellis. I had forgotten what it was called so thank you! That would be an insane amount of chive though!

 

[heirloomgal]

After reading everyone's responses, and looking around the internet too, I think tripods and A-frames are the most common way people grown pole beans, it must be the simplest I guess in terms of not fiddling a great deal with anchorage. @Bluejay77 do you find that you must use the single pole method because you get substantial winds and don't feel the tripods would stand up, or is it some other reason? Even on the internet I found almost nothing about sinking and growing on single isolated bean poles; @Bluejay77 your description was the only one I could find. I was thinking to avoid tripods out of a concern that a large growth of thick, dense foliage at the top (3 beans per pole, 3 poles on a tripod so 9 plants) would hinder maturity as mentioned in earlier posts. I may be worrying without good reason, and the tripod or A frame method may be the best and simplest way to go. I liked the idea of one bean variety, 3 plants per pole (maybe less crossing would occur?) and collecting the mature pods from each isolated pole would guarantee no mix ups. Also, I don't generally have a ton of air movement in my garden, so I hesitate to create a 'wall' of pole beans in there thinking that keeping even little gaps between single poles would be worthwhile, but maybe not. It's a first time with this method so I need to trial things out.

@Ridgerunner I saw that pole/fence post tool at the hardware store just the other day, I wonder if sinking poles in with one of those, even single poles, would be that much more successful? I have zero stones in my soil, it's been really amended over the years with tons of loamy soil. There is a bit of clay content in there though, especially deeper down. It did occur to me to try hammering in T posts (cut in half maybe) as far in the soil as I can get them, and then using 2 tie wraps to clamp the sapling against the stable T-Post?

I'm fussing a bit over all this set up as I'm growing network beans for the fist time and a few of them will go on these poles, so I wanna get it right for sure!

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 do you find that you must use the single pole method because you get substantial winds and don't feel the tripods would stand up, or is it some other reason?

I like the single poles as it seems faster and easy. I think of it as very efficient. I do have to do the prep of cutting points on them, long taper makes them easier to drive into the ground I think. In the autumn I store them away in my garage and they are ready for the next year. I've grown pole beans like this since 1975. I can put garden fabric between the rows easy too. To me it all seems nice and straight, square, neat and quick. In my 2019 pole bean garden I put up 126 poles this way in about 4 hours. I planted 504 seeds around all those poles and was done about 7 pm. I started about 10 in the morning. I enjoy looking at all types of suport structures that people come up with, but still seems like more work than I want to do.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Could you post that photo of what you are working with in this thread. That might help some people with ideas.

I have zero stones in my soil, it's been really amended over the years with tons of loamy soil.

In loamy soil, maybe. The problem is the wind, how windy is your part of Ontario? I've seen your trimmed cedar photo, how long are they? By the time you set them down deep enough to be stable they may not be that high off of the ground. To me the height isn't the big issue, it's just getting the bean pods off the ground so they don't rot or sprout because they are touching the ground.

It did occur to me to try hammering in T posts (cut in half maybe) as far in the soil as I can get them, and then using 2 tie wraps to clamp the sapling against the stable T-Post?

T-Posts can get expensive. They come in different lengths too. If you are going to do that just use taller T-Posts. Forget the saplings. Or get shorter T-Posts and do as you said to get then higher. Something just goes against the grain in cutting T-Posts. It just doesn't sound right.

I'm fussing a bit over all this set up as I'm growing network beans for the fist time and a few of them will go on these poles, so I wanna get it right for sure"

I'd think the tripod is probably the simplest. The problem with the tripod is the skinnier it is the more unstable in a high wind but the flatter you build it to keep it stable the more room it takes up.

I don't know where you are in Ontario but there is a fair chance you are further south than several bean growers on this network. You may not have as many issues with maturity dates as some people.

Instead of a tripod, you could set each sapling individually and guy wire it in place. Let the beans climb the guy wires, probably a strong string or chord. This might be easier than a tripod and should be stable.

!I liked the idea of one bean variety, 3 plants per pole (maybe less crossing would occur?) and collecting the mature pods from each isolated pole would guarantee no mix ups.

If you go with the tripod just plant one variety on a tripod. When I plant network beans I try to keep each variety by itself but I also look at the bean itself so I plant totally different looking beans close to each other. Once you get out there and actually do it you'll probably find it isn't that big of a problem. It's the thinking about it that gets you. But you need some separation between varieties but since the beans look so different there will be no mix-ups when you hull them. If you get a segregation you'll want to be able to identify which bean it came from but that should be easy.






I liked the idea of one bean variety, 3 plants per pole (maybe less crossing would occur?) and collecting the mature pods from each isolated pole would guarantee no mix ups.

 

[flowerbug]

i got together some beans seeds to send out to a relative who wants to grow some beans this year. she only wanted a few. i picked out Huey, Purple Dove and Top Notch for starters, we'll see how those do for them.

i also sent her some melon seeds @ninnymary

 

[Blue-Jay]

As an addendum to what I said in post #414. My single poles have gone through wind storms and still stand afterward. On occassion I might get one pole that snaps off at the ground level, but that comes from some decay of the wood itself. I simply stand up the pole that has fallen and drive in a new one next to it and tie the two together with some light rope. I have grown many great pole bean seed crops using single poles. I don't think it's expensive either.

 

[heirloomgal]

As an addendum to what I said in post #414. My single poles have gone through wind storms and still stand afterward. On occassion I might get one pole that snaps off at the ground level, but that comes from some decay of the wood itself. I simply stand up the pole that has fallen and drive in a new one next to it and tie the two together with some light rope. I have grown many great pole bean seed crops using single poles. I don't think it's expensive either.

How many years of use can you get out of a pole @Bluejay77? Is it difficult to get them out at seasons end? A 1X2X8 here is about 2.50, which is not bad if I can get a couple years out of them. I've used some of these before to stake tomatoes, but they often broke at their joint when I tried to pry them out.

 

[heirloomgal]

Here is the main way I've grown pole beans for the last thirteen years, I've got a a couple sets of these 8X8-
(frost is heaving them in the ground still, so are crooked for now, I took this pic today)

"I've liked this method because there is almost never any bunching and layering of foliage at the top, the growth stays pretty balanced all the way up. The odd pole bean (especially runner beans) has been really vigorous & does wind at the top, but those are more the exception to the rule than the norm.

But this year my trellis won't fit all the pole beans types, as I'm growing a couple dozen varieties. So I was going to use some of these for the remainder -

This is about the length, probably between 8 and 10 feet -

I thought using these would be more economical than buying 1X2X8's at 2.50 (probably need about 30-35 and cost of lumber has really jumped), but when I started to think about how I could sink them in such a way to be really stable and unlikely to fall over under a load, I began to realise my economical route may be much more problematic and labour intensive. I really wanted to grow the beans on single poles, until it seemed there is not much info on doing that, outside of my much used Samuel Ogden gardening book from 1971.

I had already bought this year some sturdy T posts from Dollarama, of all places, since they were only 4 bucks and that seemed a pretty good deal. I initially thought of using them for my climbing peas, but when this pole bean problem arose I thought maybe using them to support the saplings, as they can be driven in easily and at a pretty good depth into the clay-ish subsoil. I wouldn't need the whole length of the T-posts, half a length would do it. But that is still coming in at about the same price as a 1X2X8. So, my 'economy sapling method' is turning out to be not so economical afterall.

I think if I drove in something next to the sapling, something I could hammer in, and clamp to the sapling, this would work. The question is, what could that be. I'd like to space each single pole about 2 ft apart. Thank goodness its only April and I've got nearly 2 months to figure this out. I just hope that spending all that time to cut down those poles will not have been a waste, and i'll be able to put them to use.

 

[Garryg]

Hi this is my first post on this site. I am from Victoria Canada. I have been growing network beans from Russ for the last few years. I grow mostly pole beans and I have been using rebar for the last 20 years. I purchased 10 foot poles and the weight of these poles push into the ground easy. I space them from 2 to 4 feet apart. I then tie string about 6 inches from the ground between them . I then tie string at about 8 feet up between the poles. I then tie string vertically from the top to the bottom at whatever distance apart you like. I have had a few lean over with the weight of the beans but never far enough to cause problems. This system could be a little heavy for some . I find them easy to put up and take down. The poles and string last almost forever