Marshall !
Last year I had the problem of my pole beans growing into each other too. In 2012 my pole rows were 3 feet apart and the poles within the row were 2 ft apart. I sometimes had beans growing in the row next to each other that had a similar looking seed, and I had to be very careful when picking mature pods to follow down the vine to make sure what row it came from so as not to get seed mixed up from similar looking ones. What a job that was.
This year the pole bean rows are 5 feet apart and the poles within the row are 4 feet. Unlike last year I am also going to take little strips of velcro and help train any straying pole bean vine to stay wrapped around the pole in was planted next to by strapping those straying vines to the pole with those velcro strips.
My bush bean rows this year are 24 inches apart and I could just get the rotiller between the rows without tearing anything up when I cultivated the space between the rows. I will only be able to cultivate the bush bean rows one time as they will spread forming a canopy closing in that space not allowing for any more tiller cultivations.
The pole bean rows could be narrowed down about 6 inches next year to 4 feet 6 inches. Allowing me to cultivate between the rows with the tiller in two passes instead of three. The bush beans row spacing I think will be increased to 28 inches so the space isn't so tight. Cultivating this time between the bush beans really kept me on edge as the tiller just fit between the rows. I'm going to add 16 feet to the length of the garden next year. That will allow for all the changes in row spacing. I will increase my bush beans rows from 16 to 20 and pole bean rows from 6 to 8.
This year I had 5 bush bean varieties planted to each row. Next year I will plant only 4 varieties per row, but increase the number of seed planted to each variety. That will allow me to plant the same number of varieties each year, but make up for any plants that don't come up and make up for the plants that my deer friend might bite off and eat. I have had a deer visitor this year and he came about two times that I can figure by observing the number of times I saw the tracks change in the patch. He or she munched about 15 to 20 plants through out the patch. The deer hasn't been back in about two weeks and really didn't snack that much with each visit. There were over 1.500 seeds planted in this patch, and the deer didn't bother with the pole beans. Only the bush ones. Perhaps the deer didn't like going near the poles standing in the garden. I will also increase the planting of pole beans from planting each variety around two poles to three poles with less varities per row. That will will make up for a little bit of germination failure. I think planting each pole bean variety around only two poles with 4 seeds around each a little bit slim. However I do get such good production from those climbers.
Last year my 3,360 square foot garden produced 53 pounds of seed. Now this year with good amounts of rain. It will be interesting to see what the difference in total seed will be with this years 3,381 square feet of space. My little bean field this year is 49 feet wide and 69 feet long.
Bush beans rows 24 inches apart.
He has that whole hippy zen thing going on that just draws them in.
