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Vegetable Gardening

Bush beans turned out to be pole beans. Now what?

14 years ago

I planted some cranberry beans that I thought were bush type. Now that they're growing, they look to be pole beans. Thinking they were bush beans, I planted them in a long row, so putting up a teepee-type structure isn't feasible.

My thinking is to put one pole/stake per plant. Is there a better way to support them? If I remember correctly, pole beans don't really spread outward like peas do. So am I correct in assuming that one pole per plant will do the job?

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Comments (7)

anney
14 years ago
Why don't you get a 5'-tall trellis? There are some strong string ones that won't break the bank -- and stretch it just above the row. Attach the trellis to several stakes and let the long vines head down the other side.

I wouldn't try to stake each plant.
cassieinmass
14 years ago
When I was new to gardening, I used bamboo stakes on the the beans and they grew up them fine. They twined up the poles. Towards the end of the season they got really heavy and kept falling over, so I reinforced the poles with heavier stakes and pushed them farther into the ground. Then after that didnt work, I gave up and pulled them out. You gotta know when to throw up the white flag...
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Hope you don't mind if I start at the bottom and work up? :) Growing kidney beans worth it? No, not IMO. Takes too much space for any worthwhile production. Plus they need to dry on the vine so all that space is locked up well into fall. Canning info? That is the Harvest Forum here for all the canning info you need. How-tos are readily available there. Seeds or plants? Seeds. They do much better than trying to transplant. Bush beans don't usually need any support. They are bushes and support themselves. But I guess you could use tomato cages if you needed to for some reason. I wouldn't. Pole beans don't require heavy duty support unless wind is a real problem. If so you can use clothesline or even wire but the string has the advantage of being disposable at season end. If you are concerned just double the string. But many other more effective types of support are available too. Check out the Beans and Peas forum here for more ideas and even some support pics. Hope this helps. Dave
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Fran Berner Landfrauen is definitely a very good bean, extremely tasty. However it has one disadvantage and that is its lateness. So I urge you to grow at least one other. For example Kwintus, which will go right through the season and produce early and late. Another you might like to try is Kentucky Wonder. A yellow wax bean, Neckargold, also produces early. You can never grow too many different tall growing beans. I usually grow over 20 varieties every year. Do they taste better? Not necessarily, but there are many more tall varieties than bush varieties, so you have much wider choice. Often bush varieties are agri-business varieties because they can be machine harvested. High yielding and ripening all pods evenly on the same day. Not so good for gardeners who want to harvest over a long period. I cannot promise that the tall varieties I grow and love will taste equally good at your location, because weather and soil and cultivation influences flavour, but I can promise that you will find a huge choice of tasty beans amongst the tall varieties. They may need trellising, but it is so much easier to pick standing upright, than having to bend and stoop. Good luck
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If they are both from the same species, and most snap beans, both pole and bush, are from the phaseolus vulgaris species, then they can cross. Having said that, I have to admit, that in 24 years of saving bean seeds, I might have seen such a cross, just once. And, the first couple of years I didn't give my beans any isolation distance. So crosses with these beans, though possible, are not awfully common. If you can give the two kinds of beans even 15' of space between them, especially with something tall growing between them, then you are probably not going to see a cross. Also, if you can't do this, I wouldn't discourage you from saving seed. Just try to do it in the future and be sure to weed out any plants with atypical growth or fruit, in the next generation. I'm pretty sure that some varieties of beans are more prone to crossing than others. This year I'm trying to make a cross between two greasy beans, so I planted them, mixed, on the same poles and will replant seed next year. But even having done that, I expect that at least 99% of what I plant next year will still breed true to the original two varieties. Hope this helps! George Tahlequah, OK
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One pole(climbing vine) beans that I lik best is "Hyasinth". It starts flowering and producing beans from June till November(right now). It flowers and grows beans non-stop, and attracts bees. What is more is that it has the most beautiful fragrant purple flowers and beans. The beans can be harvested young or left to mature. The color and cluster of the beans also are very pretty. It is perhaps better than some mail box flowers or morning glories(which do not have fruits and the flowers are closed most of the time). This past summer I had another pole beans (orange color), Cypress vine, morning glories, passiflora Incarnata, all climbing on the same arch. I have been most happy with Hyasinth beans than the rest combined. I will not plant Cypress vine next year, although I have so much seeds of it. The passiflora will grow back and I will just plant Hyasinth Pole beans and maybe two wild morning glories(non-lobed leaves), which are much pretier than cultivated ones and flowers grow as a bunch. Back to climbing beans: My all time favorite:Hyasinth.
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glorygrown
14 years ago
you don't need a pole per plant, just put them in evenly spaced down your row. most will climb just fine for most of the season, and even if they fall over, as cassieinmass said, and they will, they'll still grow and you'll get your nice dry cranberry beans.
hatchjon
14 years ago
I agree with anney about the trellis. I have grown Fortex pole beans on a trellis with great success.

Jon
ausbirch
14 years ago
Like others say, trellis will work for pole beans and can be made free-standing. Last year I grew my climbing beans up some plastic trellis that I got for free(about 2 inch mesh, I think) that I threaded onto long bamboo stakes. I had a stake at either end, and then stakes in the middle about every 2 feet. By the end of the season it was a bit top-heavy because the bamboo has some flex in it, so I may use heavier stakes next time and possibly tie the trellis on with garden twine or light wire. But it definitely works.
jwstell42
14 years ago
Last year this happened to me.

All I did was take a couple of stakes, and string some coated chicken wire (already had it) between them.

Worked great.
locteach
14 years ago
You can use bamboo stakes and thread string/rope in a weave pattern between the plants. Look at the principles behind "Florida weave." You should be able to adopt this quite easily to your circumstances. I did this with cucumbers and it worked.

Best wishes.

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