Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just sown two varieties of climbing French beans in modules - Cobra and Cherokee Trail of Tears.
I've grown them before very successfully, though last ytear wasn't so good; I'm blaming the cold spring. This year I think I might grow them up canes rather than up nets, as I've done in the past.
The question is, what's the best spacing for maximum yield? There seems to be some disagreement/confusion between the books I've got and what it says on the packets: 8-12 inches apart seems to be the concensus, but there's no agreement on whether one or two plants per cane is best, and that's quite a difference.

Hi Ken
I grew mine (Cobra) up canes last year and had a very large crop 1 cane per plant around 12 inches apart if that helps

Same here one plant per cane and 12 inches apart. I got a great harvest with Blue Lake climbing french beans.

Thanks, both. Will take your advice. All the best, K

At the risk of prolonging this unneccessarily... Last night I looked up what the normally sensible book Square Foot Gardening says about this. For pole beans, which I take to be climbing French beans, the book recommends plants 3 inches apart in a double row - 32 across a 4 ft bed. I really don't believe this can be good practice.

Hello Ken
Both these varieties are very vigorous so I would use 1 plant per pole 12" apart as a minimum spacing - if you can spare the room, give them more space. If you are growing 'Trail of Tears' for dry beans certainly give them more space so that the pods can mature properly.

John

Hi Ken,
Sadly there are always people trying to get a quart out of a pint pot and John's advice is as good as it comes.
Maybe just as an experiment the square foot gardening method should be grown alonside a properly spaced crop.

Thanks, everyone, for good advice. A trial would be a good idea, Johnboy, but I doubt whether I'll have room. It's commonly the case, though, that if you try to cram too many plants into a limited space, you actually get a lower yield than you would giving them decent elbow room.

Hi Ken,
I have plenty of the said Beans and more than plenty of room so perhaps if I can find the time I'll have a little experiment and let you know how it goes.

Hi Johnboy. I've since queried the spacings given in the Sqyare Foot Gardening book with their official website. They've come back and said that, assuming we are talking about the same thing - i.e. that their pole beans are what we call climbing French beans - and that the supports are vertical, they've had no problems with the spacings they recommend. And 'why don't you try it in one square foot?' I might just do that!

Thanks for this post and the replies. I grew cobra last year and this year am growing that and cherokee. Will remember to write in my notebook tonight - one plant per cane, 12 inches apart.