Bean/pea supports?

[madonnaswimmer]

First time growing green beans and snap peas! I have no idea what to use for supports!

I am growing Burpee "sugar snap" peas, and Burpee "Kitchen King" garden bean.

They are planted in my garden, along the east fencing of the garden, about 12-18" away from the fencing.

(That's them in a line along the fence to the right, under the string)

Now.... I hear people talk about growing beans on a trellis. When I hear "trellis", I think this:

... so I need some help.



First of all.... How tall do your supports need to be?


I went to my Menard's store and found this "tomato tower" (ridiculously small for tomatoes) that might work??

It collapses for storage, it's only $3-4, and it's 12"x12"...but unfortunately it's only listed as 45" tall. Is that too short?

What about a 54" tall, traditional tomato cage?

Or this sort of cage?
https://www.amazon.com/Gardeners-Blue-Ri ... pfulgar-20

What about Trellis netting?
https://www.amazon.com/16301-12-Foot-6-F ... pfulgar-20

I imagine that since this garden is in the middle of my yard, making a "wall" of netting would make it pretty prone to blowing over.

I saw some people on the forum recommend 3 sticks making a teepee. How tall do you make this?

Any other ideas?

[applestar]

For tall pea vines (6-7') like sugar snaps, I really like the trellis netting on bamboo pole supports.
I can't tell from the link if it's the same as the one I use, which I think is this one
https://www.amazon.com/Dalen-Gardeneer-3 ... pfulgar-20

Mine is white and has 4" or 5" mesh -- plenty big for my hand and even arm to fit through to reach in.
-- absolutely nothing so frustrating as a fence or netting mesh that is too small to harvest through (experience which should be reserved for the animals and birds)

I pound a re-bar into the ground to make a plumb pilot hole for the bamboo then pound the bamboo in. Then zip tie cross piece bamboos at the top and middle. (most of the time, I end up with some kind of supplemental support for the poles at the base -- like 2' or 3' U-post or 16" raised bed corner) The nylon trellis has "tails" that are just long enough to tie onto the bamboo.

Beans have tended to need sturdier support.
I have tall trellis made of CRW sheets standing vertically and secured which have worked well. Trellis netting hung from 5' vinyl picket fence have worked well. I also have craft store hollow metal tube arch trellises that I grow pole and runner beans on. These are not very sturdy and one of them collapsed from weight of birdhouse gourd vines in a tropical storm, but is sturdy enough to do the job for pole beans.

The above mentioned netting trellis arrangement for peas worked for pole beans but put a severe strain on it after two seasons and I need to replace the supports this year.

Also, in terms of clean up, the pea vines hold on with tendrils which rip off the netting pretty easily after they are done, but wire and metal trellis are better for clearing the bean vines that wrap around them. In those terms, jute strings tied from the 5' picket fence and secured to the ground with just sticks was better. Once some vines climed up, the rest will climb on each other.

For California black eyed peas (which are really beans) 5' fence was not nearly tall enough and they wound along the top of the fence in both directions. I think the main thing is to have sturdy support poles and posts that are tall enough, then strings in a tee pee down to the ground. The teepee method of poles (tree branches really) and some horizontal strings should work too. You want it to be 6-7' tall.

I have tried weaving natural string trellis for pea vines. It was a lot of work and in hindsight would have supported better if I used a solid cross support for the top. (mine sagged a lot) But it WAS easy to just cut it down and compost the whole thing.

For shorter peas, I just use shrub and tree trimmings at intervals for them to hold onto, then they hold onto each other.

One sturdy trellis method I haven't tried yet but may this year is 16' feedlot/cattle panels arched over. I would use this for beans and maybe melons.

[madonnaswimmer]

Doesn't the wind knock that over, in a storm, at 6-7' tall and so "flat"?

Maybe I'm picturing your setup wrong. Are you using the trellis netting in a flat panel next to the plant, or in a square around the plant?

[hendi_alex]

My father in law always used the concrete re-enforcing wire for both cucumbers and green beans. Plant a few seeds in the middle of a cage, or leave a section of flat wire and mount on a couple of posts. Plant the beans along one side or both sides and they will climb very nicely.

[imafan26]

The kitchen king is a bush bean so it won't grow very tall a single bamboo or other stake will be all that you probably need. I usually don't plant pea this late in the year, but it may be cooler where you are.

[hendi_alex]

BTW, I don't like to bother staking sugar snaps, so always opt for the dwarfs that only grow about 24 inches. We just let the sprawl and they do fine.

[applestar]

So far, the bamboo posts have always been pounded in next to existing rabbit fence supports -- 3 ft rebar pounded 1ft in so 24" above ground, 4' U-post fence post pounded in so 3' above ground, etc. and I zip tied the bamboo to those so they get extra support. Bamboo itself is flexible and can take some stress (FWW similar setup using tall 1" tomato stakes snapped in the wind when the wind was too strong for what amounts to "sail" made of netting and pea vines)

The span has been 4 feet, 5 feet and 8 feet (actually 8ft one had an extra post in the middle)

[hendi_alex]

If using rebar, pounded in shorter than 3-4 feet, I would devise some kind of cap, to prevent the chance of someone tripping and getting impaled on the rod.

[veggiedan]

I don't think you can go wrong with chicken wire held up on either metal fencing, or threaded into PVC. Great for peas, beans, cukes, and I even tie up tomatoes on them. Not just cherries, but even bush-types. I've got some Romas I've got trellised this way, and the plants are five feet high. For larger tomatoes, decent cages do save some effort, as there is no tying involved. But big cages for big plants aren't cheap. The nice thing about trellising is that the fruit isn't hiding in some dense clump, but is sitting right in front of you. That's a BIG advantage for green peas and beans that don't contrast with the foliage (unlike tomatoes that jump out at you when ripe) The plants get lots of sunlight as well, because the plant doesn't shade itself. Tying plants to posts in a big clump just doesn't make a lot of sense, unless the plants refuse to go vertical. Chicken wire and posts are cheap. The wire gives lots of places for vines to grab onto as well. Oh, and the trellis last for a very long time, especially if you make it with PVC.

[joed2323]

If they are bush beans their is no need to trellis, I usually plant my bush beans 3-4 inches apart in all directions on a 30-36 wide bed that's usually around 20 feet long...

Ive never needed to trellis my bush type beans, only the pole bean variety

Jal_ut- according to james, he plants his peas on 5 inch rows, atleast 3-5 rows.. He says the peas support themselves this way, so I'm trying this method as well this year, I planted 5 rows with spacing of 5 inches. I'm not saying do not trellis, trellis probably works great, but if their is a way around using a trellis for certain crops why not...

Hopefully james can comment himself on this thread,

[tomf]

I use sticks taht I get from the yard, I use long ones about 1 1/2" or more thick Sometimes I use 2 1/2" and run string between them and down to the plants.
A photo of some my pole beans.

[jal_ut]

Bean poles. You know what bean poles are? Willow shoots. We cut them up along the river. they are simply young willow shoots about 6 feet long and about 3/4 inch diameter at the butt end.

Beans are planted in two rows. The poles are pushed in the rows spaced 2 feet apart. Then 4 of the poles are tied together to give a little tee pee and afford better stability in the breezes. Vining type beans climb these just fine.

Peas, just plant them and stand back. I have never bothered to furnish supports for them. I think some kind of net wire fencing or concrete reinforcing wire would work well if you want to give them some support. Hold it up with some steel T posts.

[tomf]

I think maybe next year I am doing poles, 3 of them as a tripod, and making a number do them.

[jemsister]

For my peas, I used 5 ft tomato stakes, spaced about three 2.5 feet apart, and then strung sturdy nylon string between them, then ran strings up and down. As they grow up I "rein them in" by pulling horizontal strings from pole to pole.

Last year's trellis was better--I did vertical and horizontal supports, and they climbed a little more sanely. But I still reined them in with horizontal strings, one about a third up, and another about two thirds up. It worked last time, and it seems to be working this year.

I will note that the peas are getting taller than the trellis, which is the same thing that happened last time. My trellis was shorter last time, so I made this one taller, but I think it still isn't as tall as it maybe ought to be. All the same, they're doing fine as it is. Probably partly due to the fact that I planted them against the house.

Here's a pic of what they looked like last time, using 4 ft bamboo stakes:



And what they look like now:



If I had the option to do so, I would grow my peas along a fence instead of trellising them.

My peas look different this year. I think I have a different variety than last time. I really have no idea, I'm kind of a novice. I don't know how to pick seeds other than "Bush Beans" or "Sugar Snap Peas."