Might be a pain keeping the beans off the tomatoes as yes, I wouldn't let them wind around the tomatoes. But I tend to follow tomatoes with beans as much as possible because beans are nitrogen givers, tomatoes nitrogen takers. Good succession planters, so I don't see why they wouldn't make good companions.

My plan was to succession plant but rather than a dozen varieties of tomatoes this year I have 24 and only 5 of them are determinates (only 4-6 of each and some are going in pots). Decided to just put the pole BL on inside trellis to

1) Keep away from deer and
2) the fence side where I had tomatoes and was planning on putting beans this year for the N is only 60 degrees b/c it was covered with burlap. So looks like tomatoes there again this year, will have to amend the soil but at least this gives me some time to let it warm up a bit.

Planted bush varieties where the peppers were last year - trying about a dozen plants each of Cherokee Yellow wax beans, Tendergreen string beans and Jackson Wonder lima beans - all dark beans, even though THAT bed was 70 (not covered). Still have about 50ft left there, MIGHT put determinate tomatoes in the other end. Peppers are going in the high tunnel this year (as well a a double row of indeterminate tomatoes, figure maybe the late-season ones best go in there).

Grew Kentucky Wonder pole beans last year, didn't like the taste as much as BBL and also customers really wanted the round beans.

I picture this really entangled jungle of plants if you do it. All the harvesting issues aside. Plus the pole bean nutrient needs are so different from tomatoes how would you keep the tomato-needed N away from the bean plants so that you actually get beans?

Honestly, I can't see any advantages and some very real disadvantages.

Dave

OK, I probably have enough space to put tomatoes somewhere else (though some will have to go along the western fence where I've had tomatoes the past 2 years).

I just hate to waste the other side (east facing) of the bed. Any ideas on what to put there, whether it needs support or not? Later crop of bush beans (I still have bush BL from last year, plus the bush varieties I just planted 1 row over)? Horticultural beans (got a free packet, not sure whether I wanted to try them for shelling, probably wouldn't dry them)? Fall crop of snap or snow peas?

With only 200 sq feet of garden space, I don't have the luxury of obsessing too much over companion planting. My primary considerations are tall plants shading shorter ones, and making sure they all have enough space to spread.

This year, the pole beans are in with zucchini and carrots. Last year, I think they were growing with peppers, and cucumbers the year before that. They all seemed to get along just fine. Mind you, the bulk of my fertilizing is done before planting by amending the soil well with organic matter. So I'm not doing a lot of additional feeding during the growing season. That might be why I've never experienced problems.

I definitely don't think you need to be relegated to only planting beans next to beans, though.

No need to waste the space. Like Loribee said there are plenty of things you can grow there with no problems. Just plant things that don't use the bean support and don't plant them so close to the beans.

Overly focusing on crop rotation just complicates the whole process. Amending the soil well at least once each season - preferably 2x - with lots of good compost eliminates the need to worry about rotation except with severe soil borne diseases.

Plus rotation is not applicable to all crops equally. You could have planted the beans where the beans went last year with no problems and put the cherry tomatoes where you just planted the beans instead.

There is no need to make the whole process more complicated than it needs to be.

Dave

Not trying to make it complicated, just figured tomatoes and peppers in the same places 2 years in a row I should mix it up a little (so many fungal and bacterial diseases last year with the wet weather I thought this year esp. should rotate). Plus those areas needed N and the beans would supply that. Bean row from last year (will be tomatoes this year) was potatoes the year before.

But will throw more compost down since the leaves didn't really compost under the burlap, plant tomatoes in 1 of the spaces they were the past 2 years but other tomatoes will be rotated. I don't usually fertilize during the growing season but I did last year since the tomatoes were just sitting there turning purple in the cold wet weather (turns out plenty of P, K, Mg, Ca, etc., low in N but main problem was it was so wet the roots weren't growing). The beds that weren't covered with burlap had weeds pulled out, clover chopped up and dug in (I don't have tiller) and compost spread (except for the rows where I planned to put beans).

I also tried to rotate my brassicas, put the kale in with the lettuce this year, and where kale was last year is summer squash and cukes. The lettuce and kale is where the cukes were, and cantaloupe is where squash was. Just the pickling cukes dill and cilantro are where they were last year.

But since Dave mentioned the different needs of beans vs tomatoes, I thought I'd ask what could go in the same bed on other side of the trellis - some spots are 3ft wide but others are more like 2ft and with beans toward the middle, I can't get things too far away. They're high mounded beds, not framed in, and water not readily available.

Legumes are kind of the garden weirdos when talking about nutrients - since they tend to make their own nitrogen and don't need much of anything else to do well. So trying to companion plant with them is difficult - except for other legumes. So you could always plant bush beans, crowder peas, southern peas (aka field peas) etc. - 70+ varieties of them - or any of the other legumes. Plus any root crop that doesn't require high N supplements like the carrots Lori mentioned. It is the need to keep other climbing things off the bean trellis that I would be most worried about.

But if you don't normally feed during the season - which I have to admit I can't imagine - then maybe it won't be an issue for you no matter what you plant there.

For me the gardens get regular supplements - primarily side dressings with lots of compost since I have a well established soil web - throughout the season as the nutrients are exhausted by the plants and the N vaporizes away. Plus supplemental feedings of various other organics as needed throughout the season.

Nobody wants to go 3-4 months without eating. :)

Dave

PS: the beans from last year won't provide any supplemental N to what is planted this year unless you left all the roots with nodules in the ground or tilled all the plants in. If the plants were pulled, the N goes with them.

Cut off at ground level to leave the roots, pulled what was hanging on the fence off as best I could and threw the tops in the aisle to compost in place with the old hay we'd mulched with (though I admit I didn't look to see if they were still there, DH could have "cleaned them up" and put in trash, I should have bagged them up and brought up to put in compost bin).

I was planning on side dressing (way to the other side) as well as my usual amending the hole if planting tomatoes on the other side of the beans. But I amend the beds every spring with plenty of compost (wherever I'm planting things other than beans or potatoes) so no, I don't feed. Except when it looks like they need it, like last year when I tried foliar feeding b/c of all the rain. I do use diluted Neptune's Harvest while they're still in the pots, before transplanting.

I think I'm skipping carrots this year - the strawberries took over the bed I had them in last year and that's the only one that's been sifted through enough to get rid of even tiny pebbles. Our soil is pretty rocky - even the beds near the house that have gotten more compost b/c we started them in 2008.

Maybe turnips? Onions? There are still onion sets in the feed stores.