Pole Beans

Should I grow my beans up a pole or on a cattle panel arch? What are the advantages of going up a pole?

You could also make a tepee of bamboo stakes and spiral the vines upward that wat they get more space than growing straight up a pole

I would pick the support system that fits in my garden space and the system which I can get home from the store. I think the cattle panel arches are really cool, but I do not have a space for one. My word to the wise is "what grows at the top of an 8 foot pole... beans you cannot reach." I enjoy my pole beans and now plant them every year on a tepee. Happy gardening.

Patty from Yorktown

I am doing a pole bean teepee this year and I was able to find a 6 pack of 7ft bamboo at Kmart for less than $4 for the pack.

Silly question. :scratch: If you have weed cloth in the bottom of your sfg and don't want to puncture it - is there any way you can use the teepee method? I have trellises on my 2 sfg that I started with for my first attempt. (Hope to soon post a couple of pics of them.) But I might or might not put trellises on every sfg I do in the future, so just trying to soak up some knowledge about the different methods folks are talking about.

I drilled holes in the bamboo and my boxes then zip tied the structure to my boxes. It has worked well for a few years now. I do not live in a very windy area. Hope this gives you a place to start.

Patty from Yorktown

Thanks, Patty, I'm going to file that tip away for future reference! I love the idea of the teepee.

Growing pole beans is one of my favorite things to grow. There are so many kinds, and they grow so fast. It's not hard to see hoe the fairy tale about Jack and the Magic Beans came about one you have grown pole beans a few times.

I grew mine simply on cheap 6 foot tomato stakes lashed together with zip ties at the top.

I zip ties. They are So handy in the garden. From hoop houses, trellis and netting, and everything in between. I had never grow tomatoes before last year, had no idea what a sucker was or what pruning meant. By the end of the season I had a tomato plant jungle and no more stakes to tie them to! Out of desperation I started loosely zip tying the branches to the pvc structure that is normally for my hoop house! Now I know you shouldn't normally do that, the zip ties are too harsh for the tomato plants vines...but it was not long and frost was gonna get these guys anyway...it was a temporary solution to get me through a couple more weeks. LOL

Anyway...This year I am doing a lot more beans than I did last year and I have a combination of things for them to climb on. Tee pees, old lattice work, and some old fencing as well as an archway and some trellis like Mel makes in the book. Have fun with it...Beans are so much fun!

I settled on the cattle panel. I have it at the end of my bed and planted 1 SQ of Green Beans and 1 SQ of Purple Beans. I did 8 in each square (2 rows of 4). We'll see how it goes!