Pole Beans 2023

[karstopography]

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I cut some good dried bamboo with nice branching so the beans with have plenty of things to latch on to.

I was wondering why your pole beans weren't sliding down those bamboo poles you use. It's because you leave some of the side branching on for the beans to grab onto. Well, duh. Great move! How long are those side branch stubs or do you not cut them at all? I have a good source who will let me cut what I want so it's been re-added to the "to do" list. Handy things, bamboo poles and you can't beat free.

Those side branches vary. Some might be 4 or 5 feet long and others half that. When alive, they are even longer, but the thinner tips tend to break off after they dry out some. Another thing I do is to put about half the bamboo upside down. That way, some of the side branches are angled 45° up and some angled 45° down. The climbing beans will crawl up the side branches angled towards and away from the main stems of the bamboo. The beans are way locked into place, there is zero sliding down the bamboo.

The beans end up filling all the space between the main bamboo poles so it becomes a sort of wall of beans. No need for strings.

Live bamboo works also, but the leaves sometimes take a while to fall off and sometimes the bamboo ends up rooting itself. I like the dead and dry bamboo better. It is a little harder to search out, but it works better in my opinion. We have about 200 feet of bamboo on the property line that’s been there for decades.

[Tormato]

I used to grow pole beans but then switched to bush beans. The bushies produce more for me in a bed than the poles. The last two years I've been experimenting with pole beans again using samples that came in with MMMM seeds.

This year I'm doing Jimenez. The 7 seeds planted last year produced 19 seeds for this year. They just didn't produce much. We'll see about this year. Also doing Super Marconi from MMMM to see hgow they do.

The one pole bean that produces best for me is Cherokee Trail of Tears. That one I can eat as a snap bean, as a shellie or let them dry.

You should keep experimenting with working around the hot weather, trying to time a late summer/early fall? cool down (if you have one) with the start of flowering. I "think" that many mid-season varieties, here, start flowering at about 50 days after direct sowing. If you have shading options, early morning sun with evening shade might be the best.

In a great weather year, I could get 400 dry beans off of one Jeminez plant, not eating any, and that plant dying well before all other plants in the garden. Some years I will have one or two plants dedicated only for seed saving. Quicker dying is what happens when pods are not constantly picked. I hear about short stunted pods, with no maturing seeds inside, and all kinds of other problems down south. Up here, a "perfect" Jeminez flower truss will have 7 pods, each pod about 10" long with about 7 seeds per pod. A perfect truss is rare, though.

I'm currently inventorying the bean collection, and I find 1 Jeminez seed.

Super Marconi has the least heat tolerance of ALL beans that I've trialed, 500 + varieties. I hope you get a cool spell, daytime temps no more than about mid 70s, during flowering.

[karstopography]

@Tormato 50 days takes the beans to mid- April on the first flowering. Mid 70s then for the high isn’t impossible, but closer to 80 for the high is more likely.

All my garden will get a little more later in the afternoon sun during the spring this year thanks to the removal of three oaks (water and live oaks here are essentially evergreen)to the WSW of the garden. As the sun angle progresses towards the solstice, more lightly filtered light will come into play in the afternoon.

My fall bush beans did amazing in 2022. I might try for some fall pole beans this year in addition to the bush beans. November averages around the low-mid 70s for high temperatures. Time my sowing around the second week of September. The cool down from Summer heat begins about mid September typically and gradually drops to low-mid 70s by mid November.

My mom and dad are the primary drivers on the demand for beans and specifically french filet beans. But, they tend to be gone to cooler climes once the heat asserts itself here. I think I won’t see Mom after May 15th until October unless I go and see her. But, she will be in full bean consumption mode come the fall. She’s not as crazy about the flat podded ones. We eat them all.

[Tormato]

@Tormato 50 days takes the beans to mid- April on the first flowering. Mid 70s then for the high isn’t impossible, but closer to 80 for the high is more likely.

All my garden will get a little more later in the afternoon sun during the spring this year thanks to the removal of three oaks (water and live oaks here are essentially evergreen)to the WSW of the garden. As the sun angle progresses towards the solstice, more lightly filtered light will come into play in the afternoon.

My fall bush beans did amazing in 2022. I might try for some fall pole beans this year in addition to the bush beans. November averages around the low-mid 70s for high temperatures. Time my sowing around the second week of September. The cool down from Summer heat begins about mid September typically and gradually drops to low-mid 70s by mid November.

My mom and dad are the primary drivers on the demand for beans and specifically french filet beans. But, they tend to be gone to cooler climes once the heat asserts itself here. I think I won’t see Mom after May 15th until October unless I go and see her. But, she will be in full bean consumption mode come the fall. She’s not as crazy about the flat podded ones. We eat them all.

Most of my bean varieties would likely do good right at 80, except Super Marconi. It's really hard to say because I don't get that kind of weather. An extremely rare year stays in the lower to upper 70s, and a typical year is in the lower to upper 80s. Things really start to suffer with several successive days above 85, and I don't think anything sets with several successive days of 90 (official heat wave).

None of these are actually recorded temps, just hearing the temperature for the day, maybe 20 miles away, on the radio, The one year Super Marconi basically outproduced everything else, was our year of "no summer" (about 2006?),with virtually no days in the 80s. I'd say most summer days, here, measured by when pole beans are blooming (and that's what I consider summer), are about 82 to 88, with plenty of single days that reach 90+.

[GoDawgs]

I used to grow pole beans but then switched to bush beans. The bushies produce more for me in a bed than the poles. The last two years I've been experimenting with pole beans again using samples that came in with MMMM seeds.

This year I'm doing Jimenez. The 7 seeds planted last year produced 19 seeds for this year. They just didn't produce much. We'll see about this year. Also doing Super Marconi from MMMM to see hgow they do.

The one pole bean that produces best for me is Cherokee Trail of Tears. That one I can eat as a snap bean, as a shellie or let them dry.

You should keep experimenting with working around the hot weather, trying to time a late summer/early fall? cool down (if you have one) with the start of flowering. I "think" that many mid-season varieties, here, start flowering at about 50 days after direct sowing. If you have shading options, early morning sun with evening shade might be the best.

In a great weather year, I could get 400 dry beans off of one Jeminez plant, not eating any, and that plant dying well before all other plants in the garden. Some years I will have one or two plants dedicated only for seed saving. Quicker dying is what happens when pods are not constantly picked. I hear about short stunted pods, with no maturing seeds inside, and all kinds of other problems down south. Up here, a "perfect" Jeminez flower truss will have 7 pods, each pod about 10" long with about 7 seeds per pod. A perfect truss is rare, though.

I'm currently inventorying the bean collection, and I find 1 Jeminez seed.

Super Marconi has the least heat tolerance of ALL beans that I've trialed, 500 + varieties. I hope you get a cool spell, daytime temps no more than about mid 70s, during flowering.

Being one of those people who hate to let something get the better of me, I've been experimenting with fall beans for a long time and bush is the way to go here.

I think the problem with fall pole beans is that pole beans take longer than the bush to make. I have daily weather data for this area going back to 1999. In July we have 20-30 days at 90+ degrees. August averages 20 days at 90+. This heat wreaks havoc with trying to get the beans to germinate in the first place.

I've had some luck making a deep furrow and soaking it with water. Then in goes the rest of the soil, the beans and more water. Then over the furrow go newspaper sections folded in half lengthwise and soaked down, held down with poles laid along each side.



I have to check in three days and usually they're starting to crack the ground. Off comes the newspaper. Once they're up they usually grow OK with a lot of mulch to keep roots cool. Flowering for Provider and Contender (avg 50-55 dtm) averages 32-36 days from germination. September usually has 19 days of high 80's and about 5 90+'s.

It's just too hot to start beans in July. Beans started in August have until mid October to finish producing. A September start is too late. Sometimes late July/early August works, sometimes it doesn't but that's the slot I use. The other factor that comes into play is the shortening of daylight too. It really slows them down as fall wears on.

So any pole beans I grow need to happen in spring, as early as I can safely get them in before the heat comes mid May.

Edited to add: Pickles reminded me of the biggest reason not to grow pole beans even in the spring and that's the deer. They LOVE beans! I can put hoops and netting over bush beans but can't protect pole beans very well. I still take my chances.

[pepperhead212]

This is why I don't grow many pole beans, except for long beans, which I have found are very resistant to the heat waves (had 11 heat waves last summer, plus more 90+ days not in waves). This year, I have 4 new varieties (full vine, #5, full vine #9, sweet white long bean, and a green one from @Mark_Thompson, in HI) , plus the Thai red long bean. Rattlesnake keeps producing longer than any I have tried in the heat, but eventually drops its blossoms from the heat. Some pole beans I might plant in mid-July, as I should get production, with the cooler weather.

[karstopography]

I wonder, under near perfect conditions, how long regular or flat pole beans would produce?

So the folks planting beans in mid to late May, the beans start producing sometime later in July? What would be ideal, producing all of August into September or could it go on longer? How many weeks of good production could pole beans go on for if the weather was near ideal? Eight, ten, twelve weeks? More? What’s a record length of production?

If I get five or six weeks of production from pole beans I’m happy. Bush beans normally produce in prime form for a month or three weeks. Maybe bush beans dribble on producing for a time afterwards.

[Tormato]

I used to grow pole beans but then switched to bush beans. The bushies produce more for me in a bed than the poles. The last two years I've been experimenting with pole beans again using samples that came in with MMMM seeds.

This year I'm doing Jimenez. The 7 seeds planted last year produced 19 seeds for this year. They just didn't produce much. We'll see about this year. Also doing Super Marconi from MMMM to see hgow they do.

The one pole bean that produces best for me is Cherokee Trail of Tears. That one I can eat as a snap bean, as a shellie or let them dry.

You should keep experimenting with working around the hot weather, trying to time a late summer/early fall? cool down (if you have one) with the start of flowering. I "think" that many mid-season varieties, here, start flowering at about 50 days after direct sowing. If you have shading options, early morning sun with evening shade might be the best.

In a great weather year, I could get 400 dry beans off of one Jeminez plant, not eating any, and that plant dying well before all other plants in the garden. Some years I will have one or two plants dedicated only for seed saving. Quicker dying is what happens when pods are not constantly picked. I hear about short stunted pods, with no maturing seeds inside, and all kinds of other problems down south. Up here, a "perfect" Jeminez flower truss will have 7 pods, each pod about 10" long with about 7 seeds per pod. A perfect truss is rare, though.

I'm currently inventorying the bean collection, and I find 1 Jeminez seed.

Super Marconi has the least heat tolerance of ALL beans that I've trialed, 500 + varieties. I hope you get a cool spell, daytime temps no more than about mid 70s, during flowering.

Being one of those people who hate to let something get the better of me, I've been experimenting with fall beans for a long time and bush is the way to go here.

I think the problem with fall pole beans is that pole beans take longer than the bush to make. I have daily weather data for this area going back to 1999. In July we have 20-30 days at 90+ degrees. August averages 20 days at 90+. This heat wreaks havoc with trying to get the beans to germinate in the first place.

I've had some luck making a deep furrow and soaking it with water. Then in goes the rest of the soil, the beans and more water. Then over the furrow go newspaper sections folded in half lengthwise and soaked down, held down with poles laid along each side.



I have to check in three days and usually they're starting to crack the ground. Off comes the newspaper. Once they're up they usually grow OK with a lot of mulch to keep roots cool. Flowering for Provider and Contender (avg 50-55 dtm) averages 32-36 days from germination. September usually has 19 days of high 80's and about 5 90+'s.

It's just too hot to start beans in July. Beans started in August have until mid October to finish producing. A September start is too late. Sometimes late July/early August works, sometimes it doesn't but that's the slot I use. The other factor that comes into play is the shortening of daylight too. It really slows them down as fall wears on.

So any pole beans I grow need to happen in spring, as early as I can safely get them in before the heat comes mid May.

Edited to add: Pickles reminded me of the biggest reason not to grow pole beans even in the spring and that's the deer. They LOVE beans! I can put hoops and netting over bush beans but can't protect pole beans very well. I still take my chances.

I have lots of free 1X6 pine boards, if I need to cover directly sown seeds. They keep the soil cool and moist, and keeps rain from washing away very shallow planted seeds, like carrots.

Are your earliest pole beans direct sown? To get a jump on the season, 3 weeks before direct sowing I'll start several plants by germinating indoors, move plants outside during the day, and inside at night. I use 32 ounce (very deep) ricotta cheese containers with drainage slits in the bottom.

During the season, I'll use 4 inches of mulch to keep the soil cooler. Anything less doesn't do much good.

If I had a deer problem, I'd have at least one 4-pole teepee which takes up about a 4' X 4' area, fenced in with 7 foot high plastic deer barrier mesh.

[GoDawgs]

If I had a deer problem, I'd have at least one 4-pole teepee which takes up about a 4' X 4' area, fenced in with 7 foot high plastic deer barrier mesh.

Oh, I tried surrounding some pole beans with deer netting one time. What a mess as they managed to grab onto it and there was no reclaiming that netting at the end. LOL! I'll just take my spring chances with the deer. Once the surrounding pastures green up really good, they seem less interested in the garden. Then they start coming back during droughty stretches in summer when vegetation outside the garden start browning. Smart deer!

[karstopography]

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The pole beans are up over four feet.

[worth1]

If I had a deer problem, I'd have at least one 4-pole teepee which takes up about a 4' X 4' area, fenced in with 7 foot high plastic deer barrier mesh.

Oh, I tried surrounding some pole beans with deer netting one time. What a mess as they managed to grab onto it and there was no reclaiming that netting at the end. LOL! I'll just take my spring chances with the deer. Once the surrounding pastures green up really good, they seem less interested in the garden. Then they start coming back during droughty stretches in summer when vegetation outside the garden start browning. Smart deer!

For years I've heard deer were color blind and I just knew it wasn't true.
Though they can't see like we do.
They can still see green and blue.
It's the same with cattle too.

[rxkeith]

you folks in the south have the same problem with pole beans i do only in reverse. temperature.
you have too much heat. i don't have enough. high heat in the 90s or higher will shut down pole
beans. texas easy bake in the triple digits would probably kill the beans. normally, pole beans will
out produce bush beans due to a longer length of productivity. i would say that was true when i lived
in lower michigan. here, in da U.P. bush beans do better simply because they start producing earlier.
i still will grow pole beans simply because i like them, and uncle steve is part of my heritage.
so, to beat the heat in the south or the cold in the north, you have to cheat, and start your beans about
two weeks early in doors before planting out. grow varieties that like heat, and mature earlier. if you can
keep the plants alive during the high heat period, you will be rewarded with more beans once the temp. cools down
until jack frost comes along and shuts them down for good.

the only way to keep deer away from beans is fence them out. if i did not fence off the garden, i would not get anything
from the garden except garlic.


keith

[Tormato]

I wonder, under near perfect conditions, how long regular or flat pole beans would produce?

So the folks planting beans in mid to late May, the beans start producing sometime later in July? What would be ideal, producing all of August into September or could it go on longer? How many weeks of good production could pole beans go on for if the weather was near ideal? Eight, ten, twelve weeks? More? What’s a record length of production?

If I get five or six weeks of production from pole beans I’m happy. Bush beans normally produce in prime form for a month or three weeks. Maybe bush beans dribble on producing for a time afterwards.

If pods are constantly picked when very young, so that the plant's energy doesn't go into any seed production at all (that's what I've heard), it can be a long time, with long vines (20+ feet). I've had 100+ days of production, by staring very early indoors, and then having ideal weather for several months. I just haven't attempted those methods for many years, as the rest of the garden keeps me too busy.

[karstopography]

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The Bean vines are up over my head. Cool wind today didn’t seem to faze them. I believe they appreciated the inch of rain we got. No red flags at this stage.

[karstopography]

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The beans are now towering above me and have reached the end of their supports. Emerite is already flowering near the ground (something this variety does early) and the others have flower blossoms forming up along the vines.

Algarve got a some cold damage to the lower leaves a couple of weeks ago, but has shrugged that off. I’m thinking I’m two to three weeks away from picking the first beans, although I can see getting a trickle of low hanging beans from Emerite before two weeks are done.

[GoDawgs]

...The beans are now towering above me and have reached the end of their supports. Emerite is already flowering near the ground (something this variety does early) and the others have flower blossoms forming up along the vines.... I’m thinking I’m two to three weeks away from picking the first beans, although I can see getting a trickle of low hanging beans from Emerite before two weeks are done.

Wow. I haven't even planted beans yet and probably won't until mid April. Now I have bean envy. Waaaahhhhh!

[pepperhead212]

Another month and a half before my beans go in, but I've been prep'ing for them. Last week that new trellis went in (the old stuff was degrading considerably), and this is 6½' high, which is an extra 1½', which is always good. And a couple of days ago I started putting down some strips of cardboard for mulch (until the rain started) on both sides of the irrigation line, leaving about a 3" line for the plants. I also checked the irrigation line, and all emitters were ok, and no leaks. That's probably what brought on the rain.

[Tormato]

Now your vines may start plotting against you.

If enough of them gather together, they will start to group together like a very loose bird's nest. They will climb another 2 to 3 feet above the poles, and then all come cashing down together in a jumbled mess. You just may not have enough vines for them to form such a nefarious gathering.

[karstopography]

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The harvest has begun.

[karstopography]

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The first batch of filet beans I gave to my mother as she is aficionado of the filet bean. She said Emerite is more flavorful than Trionfo Violetto'. I have grown Carminat another purple filet and she cannot tell the difference between that one and emerite on flavor. Good thing I planted way more emerite than Trionfo Violetto'.

This new pile of filet beans is going to her. We are keeping the flat podded ones to cook with the new potatoes.