That looks like a well-tended garden. Are there 4 rows of pole beans, along those 2 trellises? And are there 2 rows of bush beans between the poles & the garden edge? The issue is not so much whether you have access, it is whether the sun will be able to penetrate to the inner rows when the vines are fully grown. You are located in a lower latitude, so the sun will be much higher in the sky than it is here. I can't tell your row orientation; if those rows run E-W, you might be able to get away with 36" spacing between rows (which was successful for me in San Diego) but those poles look closer than that. As the vines grow, they will shade each other, and the yield will be reduced on about the lower 1/2 of the shaded vines. The Earthway bean plate (I have one too) might be tolerable for bush beans, but IMO that spacing is much too close for pole beans. That is especially true in your humid climate, where poor air flow can promote disease. Hopefully others from the humid South will chime in, but my suggestion would be to thin those plants to at least 12" apart... and more than that, if two adjacent rows will be sharing the same trellis.

"If I put one pole bean plant every 24 inches will that plant branch out and produce more than 5 plants in the same 24 inches planted 6 inches apart." Probably not... but that would depend, in large part, upon the variety. Note the single plant of "Pole 191" below: This plant alone produced nearly a pound of dry seed! Less rampant varieties (such as "Fortex", "Emerite", "Trionfo Violetto") would probably benefit from the close spacing. I tested that theory with "Emerite" this year, which has been noted as a relatively low-yielding variety. When thinned to hills of 2@12" (same as one per 6"), it produced a spectacular yield - and is still bearing. Most half-runner varieties would likely give their best performance at this spacing as well. However, the more rampant varieties (such as "Goose", "Pole 191", "Kentucky Wonder", and "Garafal Oro") might be more than a little crowded. Their optimal spacing seems to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 12" between plants. For beans with the tendency to branch heavily, they will indeed spread out if given space... but 24" between plants would probably be excessive for most pole beans. To me, when planting in rows along a trellis, the optimal spacing for a variety is the widest that still produces an unbroken canopy of foliage at maturity. As a rule, while the yield per plant will be lower when plants are more closely spaced, the yield for a given area will be higher. This concept works well for farmers, since they need the maximum attainable yield per acre. They are not concerned with size, or quality... only bulk. Smaller ears of corn, for example, don't matter, as long as there are more of them. For gardeners, though, aesthetics matter. We want the largest, the most attractive, the most flavorful. For snap beans, crowded plants might produce more, but smaller, pods. I personally prefer the results of wider spacing, since it allows each variety to exhibit its true potential, and because I believe it produces larger & stronger seed... but if space is limited, that may not be an option. Yield aside, there are other considerations for pole bean spacing: - Beans are more prone to disease when the foliage becomes dense enough to block airflow; so in moist climates, or where disease is prevalent, wider spacing may be advisable. - Since close spacing may stunt the vines, it may be a desirable tactic if growing pole beans on a relatively short support, such as a 4-5' fence. - While the yield for a single picking of snap beans may be greater with close spacing, it may be less sustained. Years back, when I planted my beans closer together, I noticed that the vines "tired" soon after the first picking, regardless of variety. They would often bounce back later in the season, after a period of little to no yield... but with wider spacing, I usually have nearly continuous yield. The overall yield of snap beans for a given area - for the entire season - may be higher for plants given wider spacing; but I have, at present, no data to support this. It would be a really great experiment, but every picking throughout the season (for each spacing) would need to be harvested, weighed, and recorded - a truly arduous task, which is why I have never done it.

Well, you're right. There's a lot of discussion about spacing. Six inches apart will give you larger, meaning wider, plants. I plant mine about four inches apart around a 3 foot circumference teepee. They do great. You can mix different varieties. I have done it. They definitely will cross pollinate, but if you don't mind or don't save seed it doesn't matter. (I grew Fortex and LA Purple pod together one time. Saved seed and got violet Fortex the next year. They were good.) You don't say where you live, but I can definitely recommend Rattlesnake as a great heat tolerant, productive, and delicious bean. Fortex is delicious. Not as productive in my heat, but is a great fall bean. I also like Emerite and LA Purple. I don't know if I'd mix snaps with Limas. Limas take so long to produce that my snaps would be done (due to high heat. The limas keep going). I find that one good teepee of limas, picked twice a week over the season gives me a year's supply. I mainly use them in soups and have a small family though. I love Mezcla. One of these years I'm going to try King of the Garden. :)

I think I do 3-4" apart and perhaps I'm wasting seed. I also plant on both sides of the trellis. That's a lot of beans. We use old concrete reinforcing panel held in place by steel posts (ziptied) as a trellis. I also planted a single row of pepper plants on each side of the beans/trellis. I did have beans vines tangle up with the tomato cages I had put around pepper plants but I would still do it again. I'm only feeding two people most of the time and end up letting some of the pods dry on the vine for dry beans.