My First Green Bean Crop & Thoughts on Pole Beans

Those pole beans all of a sudden have started producing green beans out my ears! Here is my very first full crop picking of green beans (minus some that got eaten on the way in):

I'm so proud!

I was going to freeze them, but after cutting them all up, my mom told me that it's really best to use only the skinnier, younger green beans for freezing, not the bigger lumpy ones. *bummer* So I'll have to start really being better at picking when they're young, which I haven't been.

I did have some thoughts come while I was picking.

I have two areas of pole beans, one long double row which I made a fancy twine lattice for all the plants to grow up, and another bunch in teepee style.

Here they are when the plants were young:

And now this is what they look like!

At first I thought the teepee style looked much nicer (plus took MUCH less time to do). But as they've grown the plants in the teepee have way overgrown their stakes and fallen back down around and all over the place, so now it looks more like a pillar than a teepee. And they are bunched really close together. The plants in the lattice have also grown everywhere, but are still spaced much farther apart. As a result, I discovered while picking, the beans on the lattice plants are much easier to see and pick, where the teepee beans are all hidden underneath all that overgrown folliage and very hard to pick!

The one problem I have run into with the lattice plants is that the stakes I used for the ends are too weak to support all that growth (I had no idea they would grow THAT much!) and they have started bending over. I've had to make-shift supports by tying rocks on twine to the end poles to pull them back out.


So next year, I have two ideas for how to better grow pole beans (which I think I may still grow since it's fun to watch them grow crazy! And I can get seeds from my plants this year).

One is to build a sturdy frame out of wood with sides & beams across the top box-style - untreated pine probably since I have some already - and then I can string the twine down from that to the plants like I did before, only I think I will do two plants to a string intead of each plant getting it's own string.

The other idea I just had while reading Better Homes and Gardens and seeing how they use plants on verticle surfaces, is to grow the beans along one side of my house on my deck! I would just have to put pots on the ground, and then hook some netting onto the side of the house, and the beans would grow right up! It's north facing, so I'm not quite sure it will get enough sun, but it's warm and I think it may get just enough sun (I'll have to keep track and see if it's getting at least 6 hours).

I may try both methods in case the house one doesn't work.

Also I am going to do more pinching of the runners as they reach the top to hopefully not have so much overgrowth at the top and more bushiness down at the bottom (a tip from my mom).