pole bean tunnels Trellis-Tepees-hooped cattle panels Thread

[blufford]

Nothing defines summer to me more than seeing the pole beans staked up. I especially like seeing the nice straight rows and perfect size poles that a lot of the old timers still use. Some of the tunnels I've seen look to be the coolest place to be on a hot day. I would love to hear how you stake your beans and maybe some pictures if possible.

They say we have up to 36" of snow coming this weekend in the mid-Atlantic states so I'm trying to think spring. BLUFFORD

[Forerunner]

I don't use stakes anymore. The ever increasing wind velocity around here kept knocking them over. I use cattle panels, "A" framed and tied at the top with baling twine or wire.
I recently posted a bunch of pictures illustrating this and other techniques, here....

Just feeling particularly ornery.

[trkarl]

Here is a pic of some of last years garden in my backyard. I made trellises from rebar, electrical conduit, and temporary fence from Lowes. I got the idea from "All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! "

My beds are 4' wide. I cut the conduit in 5' lengths. I cut the rebar in 2' lengths.
The fencing is strong plastic which is 4' high so I cut it in 5' lengths.

Then just pound the rebar into the ground about a foot. Connect the frame together using conduit corner connectors. Then slip the conduit over the rebar.
I attached the pieces of fence with pieces of clothesline rope.

It is really pretty strong.



The front was cucumber. The far left was snow peas. The middle was pole beans.

[jd4020]

We use cattle panels as well when we plant pole beans, but we don't make an A-frame, just put two t-posts at the end of each row, wire the panels to the posts and plant the beans. It's so much easier to pick on each side (we have found).
I'd like to bend the panels into an arch and let them grow over, making something like a tunnel. We'll see,, on that idea.
jd

[jd4020]

trKarl--that is a beautiful garden
jd

[Kmac15]

last year we had to break new ground for our garden, our normal garden area was have a bit of a passion flower problem. We decided to take opportunity to try few new things. We put woven wire fencing around the garden, then 3 feet out from that we put another row of plastic (cheap) fencing.

we planted climbing plants like beans, peas and cucumbers on the inside row and with the double fencing we didn't have any problems with deer.

[trkarl]

Originally Posted by jd4020

trKarl--that is a beautiful garden
jd

Thankyou. This year it looks like crap though. Heatwave in Oct. killed everything. Then everything froze in Jan. So starting over again now. I'm trying to start as much as possible from seed.

The variety and quality of the plants from garden centers etc. has been terrible the last couple years. Usually we get almost all our veggies from the garden from November to about June. But if we had to this year we would be digging deep into preps or going without.

[paintlady]

check this out - gardeningrevolution.com There are some great ideas there.

[Paquebot]

You all just missed the cheapest and greenest bean tepee source, used Christmas trees. Had 72 two years ago and someone stole 52 of them last April. Didn't hurt me too much since I had 42 fresh ones. This year, about 45 trees piled in the back yard waiting a nice day to begin stripping them down. The boughs and needles are run twice through a mulching/bagging mower to become mulch for the potatoes.

Martin

[DENALI]

Originally Posted by paintlady

check this out - gardeningrevolution.com There are some great ideas there.

Any idea what is the makeup of his growing medium? Thanks

[fatrat]

I plant mine with corn and they climb up the stalks. However sweet corn stalks don't work so well because they are to short and weak. The corn I use is Leaming, Reids Yellow Dent or Hickory King.

[Ezekiel's Garde]

Originally Posted by jd4020

We use cattle panels as well when we plant pole beans, but we don't make an A-frame, just put two t-posts at the end of each row, wire the panels to the posts and plant the beans. It's so much easier to pick on each side (we have found).
I'd like to bend the panels into an arch and let them grow over, making something like a tunnel. We'll see,, on that idea.
jd

We do this as well. We use the taller panels for pole beans, the shorter ones for peas. It works much much better than traditional teepees.

I have tried the arching and A-frames, but didn't like them nearly as well as my current method.

[ibcnya]

We grow a variety of bitter melon and also yard long beans and the 16 ft cattle panels staked to the ground and arched have been working perfectly for the past 6-7 years. The fruit hangs down below beautifully and can be seen without digging through the mass of vines on fence type supports.

[Callieslamb]

I put 4x4's in the ground and connect the tops with 2x4's. Then I put woven wire fencing between them. I use the kind with 6" square holes. I also use strings since they are the easiest to remove- just cut and compost.

[mayfair]

Is it difficult to remove old stems from cattle panels? I always dread the chore of pulling vines off my pole been teepees...and have composted the strings with vines on, too by just cutting them off.

[ChristieAcres]

Out of everything I have tried, the bean tee-pees won. We make them out of Alder usually, just take down a few young trees, and they last for years. Our problem here is that our pole beans exceed 15 feet in height. Here is the before & after picture (in the first picture, you can see potatoes, which are companions to pole beans. I also planted pineapple strawberries in the front side (opposite side shown).

and then...they grew, and grew, and grew. This is before they went clear up over the top of every tee pee. The smallest one was 10 feet tall in the back and made of those plastic bamboo type rods. At the end of the season, it was a real jungle!

[Paquebot]

Lori, those same beans would probably have been just as happy on 6' poles. Given a chance, there are some which would easily go 20' or more. If I would have had more garden space at the time, I would have collected as many TV roof antenna supports. I have one that's 10' and mostly used for pole limas which love climbing. White Willow Leaf rushed to the top and then flopped over and grew back to the ground. Last year that was grown on about 7' poles and produced just as much. Regular pole beans will only try to keep going up. When they sense that there is no more support, they stop and begin putting all of their energy into seed production. For them, therefore, longer poles are not always an advantage.

Martin

[ChristieAcres]

Paquebot- Lori, those same beans would probably have been just as happy on 6' poles...

Hi Martin! The height of the tee pees is DH's thing. Last year, I had so many beans that I could hardly keep up with them! We blanched/sealed/froze, gave a ton away, and still have a bunch left. I wanted to shorten them and move them to another raised bed, but don't think that idea will fly. I have already been informed the pea fence won't be moved, either. The way DH secures things, there is no way I could move them physically... He has so many big work projects on his plate that the garden work will be totally mine this year. Have ladder, will use again Last year, I asked him for a U-Bar, and he built me one out of steel. Yes, it is heavy, but can handle it ok. He didn't know it needed two handles, so I am going to have him modify it.

[ibcnya]

Originally Posted by mayfair

Is it difficult to remove old stems from cattle panels? I always dread the chore of pulling vines off my pole been teepees...and have composted the strings with vines on, too by just cutting them off.

Mayfair, that was the first worry I had. But once the growing season is over and later in the fall the vines pretty much are brittle and me and the DW spend 20-30 mins or so and clean them off. Well worth the effort.

[blufford]

Well this thread helped much. 2 feet of snow several days ago and more coming Tuesday night. I can't change the weather but I can think about spring. Considering I can't do anything in a straight line, I might plant some string beans with one of those tepee poles. I thought the Christmas Tree idea was great.