Best approach for climbing beans??

[Colin_M]

Can any of you help advise on what you use to let your Runner beans climb up?

I normally use a line of canes and plant two beans next to each cane. The beans then climb up the canes & it generally works well.

For a number of reasons, I've built my line of canes with much bigger gaps between the canes this year. Whilst I could go back & insert canes in the gaps, I'm hoping I won't need to. Our local garden centre had a pack of rough "twine" with a label saying "ideal for Runner Beans & other climbing beans".

I can see that this ought to work. However I'm not sure about the best way to anchor the twine to the ground. A metal tent peg would work, but that means buying quite a few pegs.
Can you advise if you've used this method (and how it went)?
Can you also advise how you anchored your strings?

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Colin, i don't use this method but, i think i would tie a row of bamboo canes, horizontally, about four inches above ground level and tie your strings to these.

What do you tie the top of your vertical canes too by the way?

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
I use 10ft Bamboo Canes in a double row with the canes held by a ridge pole and they are tied to the pole the poles cross over at the top and protrude 18 inches above the ridge pole.
However my father used to use baler twine and had 3 angle iron posts with a cross piece 30 inches long welded to the post 4-6 inches above the ground he had a ridge of wire and wires running the length of the row attached to the three cross pieces pulled taut and ran his baler twine from ridge to the bottom wire. When he passed away I inherited hid angle iron pole and I used then for one year and by this time baler twine had changed to thin plastic twine and I found that progress of the plant was impeded but the thinness of the twine and was kind of strangling themselves. I went back to poles the following year and they were a great improvement. The Angle irons were cut down and to this day, some 20 years later, still hold up my Raspberries and further cross pieces were added at the top and my protection netting slides over the whole thing.
I prefer Bamboo canes and here we suffer from high winds and they make a far more substantial trellis.
JB.

[Geoff]

There was an article in the April magazine, "Splay Your Beans", about an alternative method if you can get hold of a copy. That still uses Bamboo canes but avoids the congestion at the top and gives better access for picking. I worry it would be hard to make it strong enough in a windy area for a long row, I grow 25'.
I use two end poles, wire with tensioner across the top, 8' Bamboos 2' apart at the bottom on 8" centres. I have used half canes / half string with a horizontal base cane but it takes longer to build and I don't think works quite as well.
When I first started work I rented a house and had not accumulated any gardening materials. Spotted some scrap wire used for tyre reinforcing at work (Dunlop) so rigged up a frame and grew some beans up wires. It had rusted away by the middle of the Summer and was a right mess to clear up. Don't skimp, do it the tried and trusted way.

[Johnboy]

Hi Geoff,
I tried having two top poles down the row and tying the poles to the poles then adding a horizontal 5 ft pole so that when they get the top and my theory was that the beans would splay out both ways extending the plant. 1. It wasn't strong enough for the wind 2. The Beans get to the top and refuse to grow horizontally so you have these straggling pieces being broken off by the wind. 3. By making a triangle crossing at a single ridge and then threading bamboo poles at 45 degrees from ground to the ridge out wards to the ends firms the entire structure and I have defied the wind to blow them down. So far I am winning that battle even with a wind forceful enough to actually blow leaves off the plants a couple of years ago. My poles are best part of 20 years old or may even be older and the odd one has deteriorated and been replace but the majority are the originals. Cost wise over this period they are probably the best investment I have ever made. I grow my French climbing beans up traditional Hazel poles which come free from my 1000 ft of Hazel hedging.
JB.

[Colin_M]

i would tie a row of bamboo canes, horizontally, about four inches above ground level and tie your strings to these.

Thanks OH, that sounds like a practcal approach. I'm tempted to try this!

What do you tie the top of your vertical canes too by the way?

My canes are normally done in the same way as JB's first reply. Thus, there are horizontal canes running the length of the V at the top. I also add a few canes at 45 degress to the ground along the "sides" and this combination seems to stand up to the winds we get here.

The reason for my question is that I've cut down on the number of Runners I grow (weren't getting eaten) so now use part of the row to grow peas. Thus I put the canes in back in March, plus some mesh for them to climb up and my peas are already racing up there. I only space the canes around 2' apart for this (and laziness to get them in quickly) and i was thinking of how I could add the runners later in spring without having to insert extra canes in the gaps.

The twine seemed a possible approach, but I was interested to know if it had any other drawbacks. However if it worked for JB's dad, I'm happy to give it a go.

[Primrose]

Because space is short for me a grow a single row of beans in front of a fence with the poles eight inches apart. I know this is rather close together but I dig a trench of composted stuff below it and keep it well watered and usually get a very good crop. My poles are some kind of plastic coated carbon material. They were expensive when I first bought them about 25 years ago but as they're still going strong I reckon they were a good investment.

[Colin_M]

i would tie a row of bamboo canes, horizontally, about four inches above ground level and tie your strings to these.

Actually, now I've looked again, I found a reel of plastic coated wire. Instead of using a horizontal cane at the bottom, I might try using this wire.

The logic behind this is that I don't think I need the vertical strings to be particularly tight - just enough to stop them flapping in the wind. Once the beans have started wrapping around them, they should provide enough pull to maintain the tension etc.

Again, if any of this appears daft, feel free to point out any flaws

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Colin, just one concern i would have is, you don't want too much play on the bottom wire, our it might tug on the plants a little, just a thought.

[FelixLeiter]

Can you advise if you've used this method (and how it went)?

Yes. It's worked fine for me for many years. Nowadays I don't use any twine, not even to tie the canes together. The canes I push into the ground at each station, straight up. They are not tied to each other nor to a horizontal support of any kind. When the beans have climbed to the top of the canes, they quickly intertwine with one another and form their own structure. I've done this on windy sites without breakages. Simple to construct and even easier to dismantle.

Can you also advise how you anchored your strings?

Let your beans grow 30cms or so and then pay out your strings. Wrap the developing beans around each string several times and they will stay put.

[Colin_M]

you don't want too much play on the bottom wire, or it might tug on the plants a little

Thanks OH, that's a good point (a bit like putting them on a "rack"!).
Sounds like Felix either didn't have that problem in practice, or maybe it weeded out the weak ones

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
The next door nursery were growing runner beans commercially and in order to make the venture as cheap as possible they used the method that Felix mentioned. I know that it worked for my father in a garden that did not suffer from high winds but the nursery suffered a total loss due to a very high winds. The owners were new to the district and were warned by several people, including me, that the winds hereabouts can be very high. We were all dismissed as idiots.
If there is any possibility of very high winds then anything to do with string or wire is a no no in my opinion.
The nursery went on to lose the next years crop from late frosts that they had been also warned about and the next year and the next year and then they sold up and went!
I suppose the moral of the story is to listen to those around you who offer advice in good faith.
JB.

[Colin_M]

I fully agree with your recommendation JB & OH. Since this is my first year doing this, I should maybe follow the practice you & I have discussed previously and experiment with 2 versions:
- Horizontal cane in one section
- Wires stretched across to tie the vertical strings to in another.

We don't have a particularly windy site, but it would be daft to lose a crop in the early summer and have to wait a month catching up.