Greenbean Trellis

[hunterridgefarm]

I hate picking greenbeans, I'll plant, hoe, cultivate, grow and eat them but I hate picking them. I planted several long rows last year only to have them eaten by the deer(not sure if I should be happy or sad about that ).

But I have decided to plant several rows this year since several people have asked to buy some. Some will even pick them. And since we are wanting to start a pick your on farm this could help get us started.

Last year they sold for $35 a bushel and should sale around the same this year. I need a trellis for them to run up. My FIL used T post with wire stretched across the top and long sticks/2x2's' placed on each side to form what look like the letter "A". I have thought of using cattle panels ( got this idea from the Blackberries and Grapes thread). That could get a little expensive but would last a long time.

Anyone have any ideas on a trellis or cheap way to have the greenbeans off the ground and easy to pick?

Thanks
David

 

[Chuck52]

If you can find a pole bean to your liking, they are much easier to pick than bush beans. No stooping! I grew Kentucky Wonder pole last year. I made a trellis with some cheap 2x2's wired to t-posts and then had more 2x2 cross pieces at the top. I ran a heavy gauge wire across the bottom of the t-posts and stretched twine between that and the top 2x2. I like Kentucky Wonder, but there are many different pole beans available now. They bear for a longer period than bush beans and are usually longer and bigger around. I do like your idea of somehow supporting the bush beans. I always lose a lot of them to rot when the inevitable heavy rain hits just at the time I should have been out picking....I hate picking bush beans, too, and put it off as long as possible. It just about kills my back to do a 50' row. Picking pole beans is like a walk in the park in comparison.

Chuck

 

[2manyrocks]

We used to use cane poles lashed together at the top like an Indian teepee.

 

[DennisArrow]

For my cucumbers and green beans I use:

16 ft rows spaced 3 feet apart

Concrete reinforcing wire

T posts

I put a T post at the head and end of the row and then one in the middle.
Cut the reinforcing wire into 8' lengths and attach them verically using wire tires to the 5 posts. Then across the top I again cut 8' lengths of reinforcing wire but I bend it across the width to make an arch. I attach this to the verticles. Makes a long tunnel.

Have done this for seveal years now and the vining plants grow up and cover it. The fruit hangs readily exposed on the vertical sides and down through the top. Easy pickins........Dennis

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Chuck52, Half runner green beans are what everyone around here likes. The vines can climb 8 foot easy.

2manyrocks, I have thought of using the cane poles but don't have access to any.

Dennis, that sounds great, you could pick in the shade. Only problem is my rows will be 150-250 foot long. I was hopeing to do something easy to put up and take down. Thats why I thought the T post and cattle panels would work.

I thought about fencing but don't want to roll it up at the end of the season. May need to use cattle panels and 2x2 to start with and buy a few cattle panels each year.

 

[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...

 

[2manyrocks]

I have never done it this way, but my gardening book suggests spacing poles (could use T posts) along the row of beans. A horizontal string is run at the top and near the bottom of the poles. Then a vertical string is run between the two horizontal strings above each hill of beans. According to the book, the beans like to climb vertically. They suggest using something like builder's twine. Something that will rot or burn easily would be preferred I suppose, because at the end of the season it would be hard to separate the vines from the twine. If you could burn the twine and the vinesl at the end of the season, then less work.

 

[tommu56]

My father inlaw used to use the aircraft cable at the top of an A frame on each end and some in middle if it sagged too much, and baler twine down to the plants with a stake in the ground.
If he plant was stubborn and wouldn't grow around the vine he would give the plant a twist around twine.

tom

 

[dooleysm]

My uncle always planted enough bush beans that he could wait for them to set on a load of beans then he'd just pull the whole row of plants and sit at a picnic table to separate the beans from the plants, then discard the plants.

When I was single and living in town I had a small garden around my back porch. I trained some pole beans to climb the posts holding my porch roof up. That worked out well for me and gave me enough beans for a couple meals. An old timer friend of mine told me all pole beans were stringy, but I didn't have any problems.

 

[DUMBDOG]

At $35 per bushel, I would not pick them either. A bushel of green beans weighs 28-30#. Last year I started out at 3/4# for $3. Later in the season I did drop my price on green beans to $3 #.

 

[capi75rs]

As you have suggested, I've used cattle pannels for years. I put two of them end to end and have a 32' run. Once the the plants get @ 8-10" tall you may need to start them up the pannel but after they get woved through the wire they seem to take care of the rest. One thing that I've learned over the years it that the LIVESTOCK pannels seem to work better than straight cattle pannels. The LIVESTOCK pannels have smaller square hole openings at the bottom and as the holes move up the pannel they get larger up to the size of the cattle pannel. My local farm supply store no longer carries the old cattle pannels, but now carry the livestock pannels only. It could be that all the pannels are this way now, not for sure.

When installing I put 3 "T" post per pannel. I've had very good luck using the cattle/livestock pannels. When the season ends an endloader is handy for lifting out the pannels, with a lot of greenbeans attached and the roots still in the ground it can be a chore pulling out the pannels from the greenbeans without a loader. Best of luck.

 

[Chuck52]

Are you guys talking about using cattle panels for bush beans, or just for pole beans? I didn't thing bush beans would vine much at all. I would like to support my bush beans somehow, just to keep the beans out of the mud when it rains. For pole beans, it seems like the cattle panels might not be tall enough....my pole beans grew way over my head last year. On the other hand, maybe they just grow horizontal when they reach the top, and you still get good yield?

I've got a good collection of cattle panels because that's what I use to temporarily fence my garden. However, I'm slowly converting to raised beds and a permanent fence, so I'll have more panels available for other uses as that process continues. They are great for lots of garden projects. As someone said, they work real well for cucumbers.

Chuck

 

[capi75rs]

Chuck, the beans I plant are pole/vine style. The bush style I've never planted before, however would a wire tomatoe cage work for your problem? The cattle pannels work great for me, when the beans get to the top the start growing sideways.

 

[Samandothers]

When I was growing up we would drive t posts in each end of the row and every so often across the row. At the top of the 5 ft post we'd string a heavy wire. This was when square bales were the thing held together by binders twine. We'd save the twine over the winter, tie it together and role in small balls (somewhere between soccer ball and basket ball size. We would then run this twine parallel to the ground about 6 to 8 " off the ground between the posts. We'd then take twine and wrap it around the top wire go down around the bottom tine then back up over the top wire about 6 to 8 " from the previouse wrap. We would continue wrapping all the way across the row.
This worked real well and at the end of the season we'd cut the twine off the top wire and roll it up with the dried bean vines and burn it.

 

[Chuck52]

Chuck, the beans I plant are pole/vine style. The bush style I've never planted before, however would a wire tomatoe cage work for your problem? The cattle pannels work great for me, when the beans get to the top the start growing sideways.

I plant bush beans in 50' rows, so cages wouldn't work. Actually, there are some varieties that are supposed to have a more "upright" habit, and that might be enough to solve my problems. I always get a decent yield as is with my favorite variety, Contender, but a heavy rain does cause some losses. I really like the idea of the cattle panels for pole beans. My beans went high enough last year to make picking the ones at the top a job just for me, since my wife is only 5'2". Sure is nice to just walk along the row and pick the beans without breaking your back, which picking the bush beans will do.

Looks like I may have to buy some more panels and t-posts!

Chuck

 

[hunterridgefarm]

When I was growing up we would drive t posts in each end of the row and every so often across the row. At the top of the 5 ft post we'd string a heavy wire. This was when square bales were the thing held together by binders twine. We'd save the twine over the winter, tie it together and role in small balls (somewhere between soccer ball and basket ball size. We would then run this twine parallel to the ground about 6 to 8 " off the ground between the posts. We'd then take twine and wrap it around the top wire go down around the bottom tine then back up over the top wire about 6 to 8 " from the previouse wrap. We would continue wrapping all the way across the row.
This worked real well and at the end of the season we'd cut the twine off the top wire and roll it up with the dried bean vines and burn it.

Sam,

I have used this method. Since my rows will be a lot longer this year I guess I will use several methods until I get enough cattle panels.

I see you are in Charlotte. I have a few customers there and usually get to Charlotte 3-4 times a month. Do you work in Charlotte? Your company could be one of my customers...buy any CNC machined parts?

 

[LeadHead]

Here are some pictures of our garden that we just put in yesterday. We're trying a new trellis idea given to me by a friend at work. First, using a hoe I dug two shallow trenches parallel to each other about 7 feet apart. We then took a hog panel and while my wife stood on the end of it (resting it in one of the shallow ditches, I would bow it into an arch, propping my end into the other shallow trench. We lined up a whole bunch of them up side by side to make a long tunnel. Then, using 4 pieces of wire (in our case, electric fence wire since I had a spool of it on hand) about 4" long like "twisties", we tied each panel to the next for stability. When this was done I took T-posts and staggered them on each side of the "tunnel" to help with wind resistance. It seems to be quite stable but hopefully Murphy will not prove otherwise.
Since we still have a lot of canned beans from last year we are not planting as much this year. My wife did plant one row of them all along one inside edge of the trellis, sugar snap peas about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way along the opposite side and cucumbers the remaining 1/3 or 1/4 of that side. Since the whole thing is 7' wide, we then planted two rows of lettuce a few inches apart a little way down the center so that we can still run the tiller between it and the peas/beans on each side. After the soil dries up from all the rain that we're getting, we plan to plant spinach inside the "tunnel", too. Hopefully the tiller's handlebars will clear the trellis when tilling, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Once the vines start covering the trellis it should help shade the spinach and lettuce, hopefully keeping it a bit cooler for them.
According to my friend, who has done this, the nice thing about this system is that most of the peas and beans (and in our case, cucumbers) will hang down inside the tunnel, making it a little easier to find/pick them rather than when grown on a vertical trellis. We'll see how well it works, but it's fun to try something new and the kids think it's pretty cool.

 

[MossRoad]

Here are some pictures of our garden that we just put in yesterday. We're trying a new trellis idea given to me by a friend at work. First, using a hoe I dug two shallow trenches parallel to each other about 7 feet apart. We then took a hog panel and while my wife stood on the end of it (resting it in one of the shallow ditches, I would bow it into an arch, propping my end into the other shallow trench. We lined up a whole bunch of them up side by side to make a long tunnel. Then, using 4 pieces of wire (in our case, electric fence wire since I had a spool of it on hand) about 4" long like "twisties", we tied each panel to the next for stability. When this was done I took T-posts and staggered them on each side of the "tunnel" to help with wind resistance. It seems to be quite stable but hopefully Murphy will not prove otherwise.
Since we still have a lot of canned beans from last year we are not planting as much this year. My wife did plant one row of them all along one inside edge of the trellis, sugar snap peas about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way along the opposite side and cucumbers the remaining 1/3 or 1/4 of that side. Since the whole thing is 7' wide, we then planted two rows of lettuce a few inches apart a little way down the center so that we can still run the tiller between it and the peas/beans on each side. After the soil dries up from all the rain that we're getting, we plan to plant spinach inside the "tunnel", too. Hopefully the tiller's handlebars will clear the trellis when tilling, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Once the vines start covering the trellis it should help shade the spinach and lettuce, hopefully keeping it a bit cooler for them.
According to my friend, who has done this, the nice thing about this system is that most of the peas and beans (and in our case, cucumbers) will hang down inside the tunnel, making it a little easier to find/pick them rather than when grown on a vertical trellis. We'll see how well it works, but it's fun to try something new and the kids think it's pretty cool.

Very cool. Welcome to TBN!!!

 

[LeadHead]

Thank you, MossRoad. I've been on the site in past times but finally decided to join so I could post, too.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Here are some pictures of our garden that we just put in yesterday. We're trying a new trellis idea given to me by a friend at work. First, using a hoe I dug two shallow trenches parallel to each other about 7 feet apart. We then took a hog panel and while my wife stood on the end of it (resting it in one of the shallow ditches, I would bow it into an arch, propping my end into the other shallow trench. We lined up a whole bunch of them up side by side to make a long tunnel. Then, using 4 pieces of wire (in our case, electric fence wire since I had a spool of it on hand) about 4" long like "twisties", we tied each panel to the next for stability. When this was done I took T-posts and staggered them on each side of the "tunnel" to help with wind resistance. It seems to be quite stable but hopefully Murphy will not prove otherwise.
Since we still have a lot of canned beans from last year we are not planting as much this year. My wife did plant one row of them all along one inside edge of the trellis, sugar snap peas about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way along the opposite side and cucumbers the remaining 1/3 or 1/4 of that side. Since the whole thing is 7' wide, we then planted two rows of lettuce a few inches apart a little way down the center so that we can still run the tiller between it and the peas/beans on each side. After the soil dries up from all the rain that we're getting, we plan to plant spinach inside the "tunnel", too. Hopefully the tiller's handlebars will clear the trellis when tilling, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Once the vines start covering the trellis it should help shade the spinach and lettuce, hopefully keeping it a bit cooler for them.
According to my friend, who has done this, the nice thing about this system is that most of the peas and beans (and in our case, cucumbers) will hang down inside the tunnel, making it a little easier to find/pick them rather than when grown on a vertical trellis. We'll see how well it works, but it's fun to try something new and the kids think it's pretty cool.

Leadhead,

Welcome to TBN. How tall is it at the center? Is this the 16' panel?