Hi, sorry to hear about your job! I've grown beans before using a teepee kind of contraption made of long sticks from the yard. They should be about 4-6 feet tall. Just shove one end of each stick in the ground to form a circle, then gather them at the top with twine, bringing the whole bunch together. Then you can just plant your seeds around the outside and they'll grown right up the sticks. Uses less space than row planting too. Good luck!

walmart has a bag of green bamboo sticks for about 2.50 and there are a couple dozen. they are about 4 foot long. i used these and twine to tie them together into squares for my beans. it worked great. its in the lawn and garden section.

I use 2 stakes one at each end and take a piece of cotton yarn across the top(stapled) and place more yarn tied to the top piece of yarn and hang them down.

We lost a big pine tree a couple years back during a thunderstorm. I took some of the long branches and made them into a tepee, like Susan described. It works well.

Depends on your definition of cheap. Concrete reinforcing panel: $6. Two 8' tomato stakes $6 each. Total less than $20. Should last several years and is easy to remove during off season. All bought at Home Depot.

I've always used saplings cut in the woods. Ash is my preference but I'll settle for maple. Or even elm. They should be about 7' long and I too make a teepee. However, placing the poles in a row about six feet apart and then using twine to connect them diagonally or in whatever pattern you prefer would do fine. Pole beans produce more beans than bush bean. And they are easier to pick.
If you want to harvest the beans dry, an easy way is just to cut the strings, bean plants and all and roll the whole thing up so you can sit down to pull off the pods somewhere in the shade.

I planted my beans in a 6 foot circle around 3 redwood 2X2s tied together to make a teepee. I tied the 2X2s together about 4 feet off the ground as I heard this will make the beans easier to pick. My bean tendrils are starting to race up the supports.
Maybe a neighbor or friend who has some lumber sitting around could help you out. If you were here in my area, I could give you some free supports, no problem.

I work for an agronomy business. The seed corn companies love to see signs along the fields telling everyone that it's their variety out there. We usually end up with 800 of these posts and about 50 get pounded in the ground by our test plot. the rest get taken home by employees. If you know of a farm supply store that sells seed corn near you, stop by and ask if they have any free sign posts. This is a frame I've built the past two years for pole beans. They'll climb all the way up on sisal twine I string and then across to the other side. This frame will last as long as I do. The only cost I have in it is maybe 10 bucks in nuts and bolts.

This may be the best mistake you make this year. Pole beans are great

{{gwi:70991}}

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions.

The concrete reinforcing panels have gone up in price, $2 each in two weeks. And they're probably the same panels that were there at $6. Grumble, grumble.

And I forgot to mention that these are drying beans, so I'll need to plant quite a few to get a decent amount.

And Farmerboybill, I truly like that arrangement of yours!

Sue

Use whatever you have on hand or locally.

I've used all kinds of contraptions, but the best one was also the cheapest - cane poles and cotton string.
I have found a stand of canes growing near a chipped wood dump site where I went to get free truck loads of that wonderful stuff. I cut a bunch of poles to use in my garden. When I went back to get another pickup load of chipped wood, I took a shovel with me and dug up a clump of cane, so now I grow my own 'poles'.

Cane grows in many areas here in Oklahoma. I regrows itself every year, too. Makes a great accent plant in the corner of your yard and makes a good quick shade or screen. It even comes in a variegated form, which I am going to get a start of this summer.
I like cane poles because they are lightweight, durable and will hold a lot of weight. They are easy to make into teepees, rectangular supports for tomatoes or trellises or whatever you like.

I've used canes, saplings or branches (from pruning or fallen wood only), metal t-posts, and recycled wooden posts. I like natural materials best because they are lightweight and I can easily move them around where I want them. At summer's end, I simply collapse them and store them in the shed and they last me for years. When they deteriorate I can either chop them up and compost them or burn them and use the ashes in my gardens.

I buy rolls of cotton twine (cheap & strong) for tying and sometimes use willow or some other limber plant material to add strength and beauty to my supports. and also save the strings off dog food bags. Sometimes I find gobs of baling twine laying in the road that fell off of a farm truck and I usually stop and get it. It comes in very handy for all kinds of jobs. I don't care that it only comes in baby blue or grape purple. The snow peas and green beans don't seem to care one way or another. (hehehe).

Canes poles are especially great if you plan to dry your beans or peas on the vine. At summer's end, just pull the whole thing lightweight thing up out of the ground and shell the beans or peas right off the vines, as was mentioned by someone in a previous post.

I would use 6-10 ft. poles. Beans are vigorous growers.

~ sweetannie4u

booberry85 has made a good suggestion.Look in your neighbourhood if someone is trimming trees.You may request for some branches to be used as poles.Another place is hardeware store.They discard many wooden boxes made of wooden strips of different sizes.You may request store manager to save some for you.If they are not long enough you can nail them end to end as per your requirement.

I'm trying a new thing this year. I found one of those 'market umbrellas' everyone has been buying for their patios, discarded because the canvas top had rotted. The wood frame is still sound, so I'm going to try it for pole beans. I imagine it as a bean flower umbrella. I'll let you know if it works.