Greenbean Trellis

[jinman]

As Hunterridgefarm posted, I'm thinking about how high the arch is. My old back would get tired if I had to hunch over for very long while picking beans. Your system will work well for the beans, but harvesting could prove a little tedious. What I found with beans is the first 18" to 24" from the ground, you don't really need a trellis. I think you could use t-posts and just tie your cow panels vertically on the posts and leave space at the bottom for young plant tilling. You could have a trellis up as high as 5' and only leave 1' at the bottom. Then, you could just walk between rows to do your harvesting. I used this method with chicken wire between t-posts and found it worked very well.

Welcome to TBN. We all do lots of garden experimenting here. It's fun and sometimes we even get lucky and have a big harvest. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

 

[LeadHead]

Yes, these are the 16' panels and it's a little bit more than 6' high at the center. In past years we have used the panels simply suspended above the ground on T-posts but it is indeed hard on your back to hunch over, so this should help in that regard.

 

[2manyrocks]

I wonder if you could plant sunflowers and green beans together so the green beans would grow up the sunflower stalks? I had forgotten, but years ago we planted green beans with corn, and the beans grew up the corn stalks. But it has been so many years ago, I can't remember if it worked well or not.

 

[MossRoad]

I wonder if you could plant sunflowers and green beans together so the green beans would grow up the sunflower stalks? I had forgotten, but years ago we planted green beans with corn, and the beans grew up the corn stalks. But it has been so many years ago, I can't remember if it worked well or not.

We planted beans under corn many times. It worked great for the beans even though the raccoons ate the corn!

 

[jimmyj]

A lot of good ideas. We have to keep trails open in the forest so we cut a lot of poles each year and make a bit trellis out of them (but no where near what hunteridgfarm has to deal with). The arch is very cool but I worry about how to pick the beans that may be on top. Leadhead, please send us some pics of it covered in plants, I bet it will look fabulous.

I like the heavy wire at the top with strings coming down idea the best.

NOTE: Cattle panels are over $50 each up here, same with livestock panels. How much do you guys pay for them?

 

[clenhart]

I planted bush beans myself, but my Mom and Dad planted pole beans and I helped them fix their rows up. We used T-posts and cattle panels down the center of the rows. It came out looking pretty good and was easy to put up. We'll see how it turns out when the beans start producing...

O.K. So the pole beans on the cattle panels win hands down... At least from an ease of picking standpoint. The bush beans I planted seem to be just as prolific at producing, but infinitely harder to pick. Next year it'll be pole beans for me.

 

[/pine]

The first and only year I planted bush type green beans it nearly broke my back harvesting them....Now I plant half runners along the parameter fence of my garden...

 

[DennisArrow]

I posted back at the first of this thread about using concrete re-inforcing wire rather than bull panels. MUCH easier to work with when making the arch. A LOT less expensive and long lasting....many years....Anyway.........my beans are just going full blast right now. The top of the arch is perhaps 6' and it is easy to just reach through to get the ones growing on the top.
My cucumbers are the same way using the arch, side panel, and a T post perhaps every 15 feet. Seems it will be another couple of weeks before they put on.

I also use the re-inforcing wire to make my tomato cages and then use one t post with plastic ties to attach the cage to the post. With this years rain/cool weather they are growing like weeds but kinda leggy. Am gonna do the arch thing over the cages between rows so that when they get up to 8' and fall over that they will fall on the arch. First year to try this with my tomatos but have been doing the arch thing with re-inforcement wire for my beans and cukes for several yeas.................YES we use bull/livestock panel lots but at $51 the re-inforcing wire at $82 a roll sure makes sense to me.............Dennis

 

[jinman]

O.K. So the pole beans on the cattle panels win hands down... At least from an ease of picking standpoint. The bush beans I planted seem to be just as prolific at producing, but infinitely harder to pick. Next year it'll be pole beans for me.

Wow! Nice beans. You gotta be busy pickin', shellin', and fixin'. They sure look healthy. Nice job!