what to do w/pole beans while I'm away? need ideas

patandchickens

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So, in a fit of poorly thought-out timing, about 10 days ago my 3 yr old and I planted scarlet runner bean seeds saved from last year. They're at the 2 true leaves stage now.

Why is this a problem? Because we are leaving on Friday morning for 10 days (visiting my family in Penna.) and I have NO idea how I am going to get these things to glom onto the teepee poles they're supposed to be growing onto. My experience is that their odds of finding and grabbing the poles on their own are, like, 50-50, and we have relatively few plants to start with and my kid is Highly Invested in this :p

So, any suggestions for increasing the odds of avoiding coming home to 2-foot-long bean vines either snapped off of their own weight or inextricably wound around each other and every weed in sight? Cuz left to their own devices I just know that's what'll happen.

I was thinking maybe a spiral of string wound around the lower part of the teepee, but I bet others will have better ideas and possibly personal experience with this sort of thing?

I need to know by tomorrow (Wed.) at around 4 because that will be my ONLY time to get this done :p

Thanks in advance,

Pat
 

OaklandCityFarmer

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I think you have the idea there with the string, Pat. :)

Recently we set up a trellis that didn't quite touch the ground because we put it on hinges for easy clean up. Since didn't reach the ground and I didn't want to out there every day help the spouts find the trellis, we tied a few twines around a narrow rock and buried into the ground behind the sprouts. Then we tied the twine to the trellis and presto the vines worked just fine.

I really think mostly any set up with string guiding them should work.

Good luck
 

bills

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If you have any chicken wire or netting, wrap it around the first few feet of the teepee. The beans will attach to it more readily then the poles themselves. I always use this method, and I haven't had any problems.

My concern would be watering them. Have you got a neighbor that would help?
 

patandchickens

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hey, I have some really snaggly partly-ripped-apart chickenwire collecting weeds next to the garage... guess what will be going around the bottom of the polebean teepee as soon as my husband gets home to watch the kids (it is bizarrely cold and windy here today and the 1 yr old keeps INSISTING on taking his socks off :p)

Thanks very much for the idea.

FWIW, I am not concerned at all about watering, b/c I would not be watering the garden even if I were here :p I know it makes me a total heathen or whatever, but I just am not a garden-watering kinda gal (except occasionally in droughts, or for newly-planted perennials or woody plants). <shrug> My attitude is, if I can't grow it with fluffy soil with lots of clay and compost and natural rainfall and a thick mulch, it's just too much trouble to bother with.

Fortunately for the beans etc we're having a rather cool and consistantly damp June, and I am absolutely sure they'll be fine.

I will have the chicken/horse-sitter watering a few cuttings and still-small seedlings in the cold frame though :p

Thanks to both of you,

Pat
 

Tutter

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It's great that everything will be fine while you're gone. I've never lived anywhere that's gotten rain after May-June, so I have to take garden watering into consideration when going anywhere.

Have a wonderful time, and a safe trip! :)
 

Mossy Rock

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We cut branches from our trees that we prune for the teepee, theydon't seem to have any difficulty finding the poles and the strings, they also attach themselves to our garden fence which is chicken wire.
 
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