Bush beans VS pole

[Brandon558]

I have always grown bush beans and this year i am not too happy so far with the amount of beans on the plants. It is still a little early to tell but half are doing good and the other half hardly have a bean on them. What causes this?

I do think i planted them a little too close together.. which may be causing this.

As far as yeild.....do pole beans produce better than bush in the long run?

Im growing blue lake bush right now.

Thanks...plan to grow pole beans next year.

[kath]

I always used to grow just bush beans before and the first time I tried pole beans it was a really bad year for Japanese beetles and/or grew varieties that they really liked. After trialing lots of bush beans, I found that some just set a lot more beans for me than others, produced longer and withstood disease better. Descriptions of pole bean varieties and people's success with them led me to give them another try and I've trialed quite a few since then and am finding that we much prefer their growth habit, the fact that they take up less space to grow and keep on producing for the season. We still do plant a small row of Provider as early as possible, starting them under plastice so that we have beans as early as possible. Most of the pole bean varieties that we like start producing a bit later. I've never measured yield, but for a given amount of space, I can't imagine that pole beans wouldn't outproduce bush beans.

[OkieDan]

Different varieties vary greatly. Many pole varieties here in Oklahoma have not worked very well for me. We have too much summer heat for some varieties. Experiment to see what works for you.
But something that does work for me is the red noodle yard long bean. Pick them when they are about a foot long to use them for green beans. They turn green when they are cooked. An eight foot row grew more than my wife and I wanted. The down sided to them, is that they do not taste as good as the bush beans. Put a little extra bacon in the pot to make it good.

[dustdevil]

Most bush beans are grown 18"- 24" apart.

If you get the right pole beans for your area, they should out-yield your Blue Lake bush beans.

Building trellises for pole beans requires more work than the little or no support required for bush beans.

[OkieDan]

I use part of a cattle panel to grow pole beans. I drive two t-post into the ground and wire the panel yo it. Plant the beans 3 inches apart at the base of the panel, and thin to 6 inches apart. When he vines find that panel, bam, you'll be picking beans in no time. And u won't b bending over all the time to pick them.
Pole beans are good, but in Oklahoma nothing compares to the yield of the red noodle yard long green bean. The red noodle also out performed the green yard long green beans. The thing I had to do though, was rotate the crop bc of ants and aphids. Ants love to milk aphids on pole beans. The problem gets bigger every year unless you poison, or rotate the crop to a new location. I did finally find a homemade ant remedy for ants that was safe. Google homemade insecticide for ants to research the subject.
Some people plant pole beans in the corn field. After the corn is picked, the vines grow up the corn stocks. My uncle used to cut it all down at the end of the season, throw it in a trailer with some bales of alpha hay and take it to have it all ground up into cattle feed. Wast not want not.

[saltmarsh]

I prefer the flavor of flat pole beans to bush beans. Last year I grew Rattlesnake pole beans and they grew to the top of a 6 1/2' trellis, made a crop, then grew back down to the ground and made an even bigger second crop.

I plant 2 rows 24 inches apart with the trellis between the rows. Plant 2 seeds 3/4" - 1" deep per hill 10" apart and don't thin them.

My rows run North - South. If your rows run East - West only the South face of your row will produce beans (the beans on the South face of an East - West row shade the beans on the North face and you'll only get a nice crop of leaves.). Also don't use too much fertilizer (I don't use any) or your beans will make mostly leaves.

This year I'm growing Super Marconi, an Italian heirloom to see how they do in this area. So far they are very impressive. Vigorous and I do mean vigorous vines. This is the bean sold at fresh markets in Italy, so I expect the taste to be one of the best. We'll see.

http://www.growitalian.com/bean-pole...marconi-57-30/

The first and second picture is the Rattlesnake pole beans from last year. The third picture is the Super Marconi currently growing.

These will comtinue to produce until frost kills them.

To remove the beans from the trellis after the crop is complete simply use a hoe to cut the vine at the ground, allow the bean vine to dry and become brittle and it's easy to crumble the vine from the trellis.

[Worth1]

I was going to suggest flat Italian pole beans too but there you see it above.
I think flat Italian beans are far superior to other beans in flavor and growth.

Worth

[OkieDan]

Wow! You can really grow pole beans. I tried one called Vortex last year. I got a lot of vines but very few beans. I too am in zone 7, so I should be able to have some similair results. I did not fertilize, but it was a new raised bed with a lot of Cotten hulls finely ground into the mix, and other stuff. I am trying two other kinds this year, if they don't work the rattle snakes will be in my garden next year. Thank you for sharing.

[saltmarsh]

Originally Posted by OkieDan

Wow! You can really grow pole beans. I tried one called Vortex last year. I got a lot of vines but very few beans. I too am in zone 7, so I should be able to have some similair results. I did not fertilize, but it was a new raised bed with a lot of Cotten hulls finely ground into the mix, and other stuff. I am trying two other kinds this year, if they don't work the rattle snakes will be in my garden next year. Thank you for sharing.

My neighbor added composted Cotton seed hulls to his beds last year and had the same result (healthy Rattlesnake vines - mostly leaves with few beans) that's why I posted the advice above. I try to learn from others mistakes. I make enough mistakes on my own. Cotton seed hulls are too rich for good beans. They did work well for his tomatoes though. Claud

[Tormato]

I just planted 116 "varieties" of bush beans (a few possible half-runners in the mix) over the weekend. I say varieties because a few of them are unknown or are crosses. The kicker is....I really don't like most bush beans as compared to pole beans. Maxi is my favorite so far, with several new ones, hopefully, to be tested this year.

I've heard that bush bean plants can be pruned back after the harvest to get the plants to produce more. I use 3"- 4" spacing, with 18" between rows for bush types.

As for pole beans...Supermarconi (my "strain" is from the Cuneo region of Italy) is my absolute favorite bean for flavor, after trialing a few hundred varieties. But, this bean does fairly poorly in the heat, for me. In a cool season, it will outproduce just about anything I've trialed.

I too like the flat "Romano" type pods. Jeminez is usually the best producer for me, unless there is a long heatwave. Then, Rattlesnake does the best. Seed spacing is 6", 4 pole teepees about 10 feet high, 6 seeds to a pole.

I'll likely be the host of a bean swap in the fall, at Gardenweb.

Gary

[rxkeith]

pole beans in most cases will out yield bush beans in production. they take a bit longer to get going, but they will produce over a longer period of time. my production is not a great because i am in far northern michigan where the winters are long, and the weather is fickle. that doesn't stop me from growing them though. there is always a bean out there to suit your taste. darryl jones aka fusion power grows several varieties in alabama. he or someone else can advise on varieties that do well in the south. pole beans once trellised are easier to pick. not as much bending and stooping. the variety i have grown the longest is my great uncle steve italian pole beans, a flat bean similar in color to rattle snake, but unique. 40 or so years and counting. not the best bean for the south. i am partial to italian beans due to my heritage. although i will grow anything that tastes good. i should grow more bush beans for an earlier harvest, but i am stubborn.


keith

[Tormato]

Keith,

The best of both worlds is Early Riser/Kwintus/Northeaster, for very early pole beans.

I group all three together because some people say Early Riser and Kwintus are the same, and others say that Kwintus and Northeaster are the same. But, I've never heard anyone say Early Riser and Northeaster are the same.

I have one La Vigneronne pole bean plant flowering now. It looks like it may be the earliest, for me, this year. I'm also wondering if it is a cross. Time will tell.

Gary

[Brandon558]

Awesome info and responces.... Thanks so much to all of you.