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Vegetable Gardening

When do pole beans start climbing?

11 years ago

Last year I grew shell beans for the first time. Love love love. However, I thought bush beans would be the way to go, but everything was hidden and difficult to see under all the foliage. This year I planted pole beans, which were MUCH harder to find. I have erected teepees on which to climb and am wondering when the tendrils will appear and take hold. Right now they are about a foot high, still erect, but no sign of grabbing onto the structure.

Comments (10)

n2xjk
11 years ago
Should be any day now. As soon as it reaches the teepee and starts wrapping around it.
Bunny
Original Author
11 years ago
n2xjk, thanks for the reply! Can't wait. Usually I have to deal with birds eating my seedlings so I tied sparkly tape on the teepees to dissuade them. However, they grew soooo fast (like Jack and the Beanstalk) that they suddenly were too big for the birds to pick off.
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Jimster told me about this thread today when I posted in Vegetable Gardening on the subject. I'm growing Kentucky Wonder pole beans in a spot just outside one of my kitchen windows. It's been fun watching them grow, and noting that they put on about 4-6" of new growth every night. Two of the vines have grown about 8" beyond the top of the support I provided for them. Over the past two days (including last night, using a flashlight) I watched the vines move in various directionsÂfacing each other, facing away from each other, etc. I wanted to find out why and how they did this. So I wrote to a Ph.D. bean research scientist, and this was his reply: Susan, The twining habit in climbing beans is controlled by the Tor gene (Latin torquere) first described in 1915. It confers the light controlled phytochrome climbing habit in climbing beans and is absent in bush beans (recessive tor gene). Ancestral primitive beans were largely climbers and used this trait to climb over vegetation to seek light. So the two plants in your case are not reaching for each other but they are twining around (have a rotational motion that has been demonstrated with time lapse photography). If they did touch they would vine together and might climb upwards more as they support each other. Since the vines do not have support (8" above the stakes) gravity will take over and cause them to fall earthward and this action is a kind of free fall - without direction. If they detect support again they will continue to climb upwards toward the light. I have see vigorous climbers in wild climb over all types of vegetation. In your case the vines are not seeking each other but as they continue to grow they will rotate in search of support driven by light. When we work with climbing beans in the greenhouse (rarely in the field) we turn the vine down on the plant itself otherwise they would seek the greenhouse supports, flower and set pods were we would not be able to harvest them. I hope my few comments are of interest - have a good harvest!
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catherinet FWIW, my cowpeas do the same thing -- send out short runners that sort of wave about in the air above them. They'd probably fasten onto a trellis if it were there, but the plants stay upright just fine without one.
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wertach zone 7-B SC
11 years ago
My Blue lakes were planted the Fri. before Easter. I needed a taller trellis since they have outgrown it! They attached to the rope trellis when they first started running.

I leaned my rake against the trellis the other day and forgot to put it up. I went out 2 days later and had to unwind the beans wrapping around it!

I'm going by the big box store to pick up some 2x2x8's on my way home. I'm going to use wire ties and tie them to the T-posts so that I can extend them.

Might not be as pretty, but hopefully it will work.

Note to self, buy longer T-posts for next year!
jimster
11 years ago
"...wondering when the tendrils will appear..."

Beans don't have tendrils. The vine itself winds around the support.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: How do pole beans climb?
Bunny
Original Author
11 years ago
Beans don't have tendrils. The vine itself winds around the support.

Good to know. Now I'm wondering about some plants that are a few inches away from the teepee poles. Do I need to guide them over, or will they figure it out themselves?
n2xjk
11 years ago
Usually they figure it out. You should see a time lapse movie of a pole bean growing. The tip of the plant waves in circles until it finds something to wrap around.
Bunny
Original Author
11 years ago
n2xjk, awesome!
jimster
11 years ago
Bean vines tend toward a corkscrew even before they "find" a support. So, sometimes I help them a little by gently guiding them around the support a few times, although it isn't really necessary.

BTW, in the bean forum thread linked above, there are some interesting facts about the direction of spiral. It's something you can show your friends to amaze them with your gardening knowledge, as well as something interesting to watch in your garden.

Jim
je_suis_jo
11 years ago
According to the journal I've been keeping of what happens when: (In Southern MD)
I planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans on April 8th
They sprouted April 20th
I noted that they were starting to climb the trellis on May 17ths, but it may have started a day or two earlier.

I don't know how helpful zone 7 timing (And I think I have a microclimate) is for someone in 10, but I like keeping track of things that way, so I don't freak out next year....like I almost did about my peas taking a month to sprout. It was the same last year because I always plant them too early, haha.
suprneko
11 years ago
Not directly related to the question but a funny story - I was still living with my parents and decided to plant a bunch of stuff for the first time, including pole beans along a chain link fence. There was 7" of retaining wall under the fence, so I carefully placed sticks along the planting holes and attached them to the fence. My experienced gardener mom asked me what those were for, I explained it was a bridge so the bean seedlings could reach the fence (duh). Of course the beans found the fence on their own. I am sure my mom had a good laugh over that...lol

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