Best Plants to Grow Beans On as a Natural Trellis

I've made quite a few trellises.... and they can be a lot of work. Growing beans on existing plants has made growing them so much easier and enjoyable for me.

I've heard of beans traditionally being planted shortly after planting corn to grow up the stalks as a natural trellis.

Fruit trees have been an excellent natural trellis in my food forest.

Have you grown beans on any other plants as a living trellis?

I've grown beans on corn. I though it worked great. I did have some of the corn topple over. I grew it on top of my first hugel type raised bed and had very little actually soil to work with, using mostly mulch and mounds of aged compost.

I've thought about trying with sunchokes.
Has anyone tried beans with sunflowers?

James Sullivan wrote:Has anyone tried beans with sunflowers?

I did a few years ago with half-runner beans and it didn't go so well.  I think it was the wind that first toppled the sunflowers,  so I put stakes at the corner of each bed and used twine to contain them.  As the beans intertwined,  they continued to pull the sunflowers down.  I may try again with sunchokes, but probably not with sunflowers.

I let some of the lambsquarter grow wild and go to seed. It's been sturdy enough for cucumbers to grow up, so I imagine it would do fine for beans.

I've grown beans up sunflowers and corn with success. My sunchokes so far have had much more spindly stalks and I wouldn't count on them being good supports, but I'm also hoping they pick up some additional vigor this year. Is there any risk of the beans choking the structural plant? If that happens with my corn, it's not the end of the world, but how old/tall/broad do fruit trees need to be before it's a good idea?

Christopher Weeks wrote: Is there any risk of the beans choking the structural plant?

Yeah they can depending on the number of bean plants and the size of the structural plant. I like using perennials as a trellis if possible, because for annual structure plants, the beans would have to be planted later usually to not overwhelm the trellis plant, but with larger perennials, the beans can be planted as early as possible, increasing the harvest period.

how old/tall/broad do fruit trees need to be before it's a good idea?

Most of my trees in the area of the food forest where I grew the beans were just transplanted there and most were about 4 feet tall. By the end of the year, the apple trees varied between 6 to 10 feet tall, and they were the perfect size so it worked really well. The bean vines weighed down the side branches to create a natural slightly open shape. They will also pull-down the main leader if allowed, but it's easy to prevent that if desired.

We grow beans and corn together every year. 90% of them get harvested dry (along with the corn) someone occasionally pops in the field and picks only enough green beans for one meal when they are green. Growing them on corn will probably make their harvest more labor-intensive for you.

I've also had volunteer beans grow up a pomegranate tree. It did very well there and we picked most of those green as they were near the kitchen whereas the cornfield was over a mile away.

I can't imagine beans pulling over the wild sunflowers growing in our yard if I waited till about now to plant them. These are multiflowered bushes that bloom from fairly early summer till late in the fall.  Right now they have reached around knee height but they will be almost as tall as the house by the end of the season. Single headed sunflowers like the black oil variety probably aren't as well suited. Beans also take off faster than the sunflowers so the definitely should be planted later.

James Sullivan wrote:I've grown beans on corn. I though it worked great. I did have some of the corn topple over. I grew it on top of my first hugel type raised bed and had very little actually soil to work with, using mostly mulch and mounds of aged compost.
I've thought about trying with sunchokes.
Has anyone tried beans with sunflowers?

Yes: \Corn is not as strong as the tall sunflowers. I had "grey stripe" and the stem was as big as my forearm. so unless you live in tornado alley, the beans will go up these stalks really well. Sunchokes often have multiple stems, so I'm not sure if that would work as well but if you 'helped' them get started, they should do really well IMHO. Alternately, you could clip every stem but the thickest. that should work. They are good companions says this site:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/jerusalem-artichokes/jerusalem-artichoke-companions.htm#:~:text=Pole%20beans%20are%20beneficial%20companions,of%20Helianthus%20tuberosa%20for%20support.

Corn works well for pole beans if you choose the right corn. Carol Deppe has a good chapter on this in The Tao of Vegetable Gardening. It needs to be a tall variety with very strong stalks. She does not recommend her Cascade  or Magic Manna corns for regular pole beans. The 5" height of the corn does work for half-runners and other less vigorous beans. For pole beans, you want something like Wapsie Valley or Hickory King, a big, late, large-framed plant. These have higher yields than the earlier smaller corns too. If you want sweet corn, Tuxana has worked well for me, and Country Gentleman or True Gold might as well.  Plant the beans after the corn is about 10" tall, and place the corn in clusters a couple of feet wide, with 6 feet between clusters.  Carol Deppe plants large areas, so she uses widely-spaced rows (4' apart) with bean plants trained to stay on a single row so the paths aren't blocked, She suggests regular pole beans for the outer rows, and special shade-adapted cornfield beans for the inner rows.

Sunflowers have an advantage: As Will Bonsall points out in his terrific book, they can be planted early, before your last frost date. Being native to North America, they are used to sprouting when the weather starts to warm, but the nights are still frosty. (They lose this frost hardiness after they are a foot or two high; as adults they no longer have frost-resistance.) If you plant them in threes, with the seeds about 18" apart in the cluster, they make a stable tripod, held together by the beans. Plant the sunflowers about a month before, and the beans after your last frost date.
Rather than using his corn plants for pole beans, Will Bonsall pairs soybeans with them, dropping the soybean seeds into the same furrow as the corn. I believe he uses a 3' spacing between rows.

Grain Amaranth is another plant with the size and strength to act as a trellis. Opopeo and Golden Giant both work well. They are in the 7'-9' range like the tall corns, and can be used in the same way, with the same planting pattern. They are bushier than corn, and the leaf cover can give a bit of frost protection to the beans in autumn. The seedlings are spindly, so you do need to wait a bit. Once they get established, they make very thick, hard stalks that are ideal for trellis. (and can be used for stakes and such when dried after the season) Like sunflowers, they can be planted earlier than corn. However, the seeds are tiny  (and the seedlings look just like pigweed) so many people start them in pots or flats and transplant. Or just sow thickly, and thin unmercifully. Use the thinnings for greens--they are good cooked when young.  This shows amaranth plants that had a vine growing up the stalks. In this case, it's a morning glory, but beans work the same way. Unfortunately, the photo only shows the tops of the plants, but this variety gets very tall. golden giant

All three of these trellis plants will benefit from hilling-up around the base just before you plant the beans. You can hoe out any weeds and use the hoe to scrape some soil around the stalk, This gives them more stability, as does planting the sunflower or corn seeds on the deep side.
If transplanting amaranth, you can plant it a bit deeper than the soil level was in the pot. If direct-sowing, the tiny seeds need to be sown just under the surface. Again, planting in triangles gives them much more stability than they would have as either single plants or as a row.

what was the name of that crazy tall wheat or grass Paul was growing in one of his videos i can't remember the name...??

I've grown Apios americana up sunchokes. Both need serious digging out with a risk of regeneration! I also did the same mix in a planter in a large saucer of water (upturned bin lid) to keep the slugs off.

Anthony Powell wrote:I've grown Apios americana up sunchokes. Both need serious digging out with a risk of regeneration! I also did the same mix in a planter in a large saucer of water (upturned bin lid) to keep the slugs off.

Welcome to Permies with this very interesting post. I had to look it up on the Wiki because I've never seen it advertised. I saw it mentioned in previous posts on it but I assumed it would not be a perennial in my area [zone 4b, Central Wisconsin]. I had it confused with some other "ground nut" that was not a vine. Since the culture of it is similar to sunchokes, it would make good sense to grow them together and stack functions! They should make great companions since the sunchoke can contribute the trellis necessary and apios americana can contribute fertility as a legume.
In Central Wisconsin, my sunchokes are just peeking out of the ground. I wish I had a few, just to try.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apios_americana
Since both tend to 'travel',  I would put them in a high raised bed. In the fall, as I harvest my sunchokes, I have to dig up the whole bed anyway, I might as well get the apios.
Getting the beans would be a big plus. I wonder if the "dense racemes" of these flowers are palatable to my bees?
Wow! talk about stacking functions!
Thanks again for this great post, Anthony!

I'm thinking maybe cane fruit would serve.
They survive bindweed, I think they could deal with beans.
I've read elderberry can be a fantastic way to mulch crops, maybe cut most but leave some for the beans to climb?

I've heard of growing pigeon peas as a trellis for tomatoes.
They can't survive winter where I live, so I'm homing to use Siberian pea shrub instead.

I've not grown sorghum but It seems like good candidate.

I might sow some climbing beans among my jchokes, just for the hay they could produce together.

I think that in most climates, growing a vine on cane fruits would be problematic, for several reasons:
--They are vigorous, but flexible, and their natural habit is to lie down and root as they go. It would take very strong trellis indeed to take the additional weight of  mature pole beans.
--Beans produce a lot of foliage, which is very efficient at gathering all the available sunlight. Your berries would at best be less sweet, at worst there would be dieback from the shading.
--Something thorny is probably not workable. Reaching into a thorny, dark, and tangled mass might make people think twice before trying to pick either.

If someone does try it, I hope they take photos and let us know what happens!

Those are good points!
The competition for sunlight is the only one that truly gives me pause.
All my cane fruits are supported on something to make harvest easier, and only a few of them have thorns.


I was checking my berries today, and low and behold, the grocery store beans I planted next to them are coming up!
They are probably bush beans, but we shall see.



I have some pollarded trees that could easily support beans.
I would need to pinch the beans back to keep the limbs clear, but that would be ok.
If on was harvesting/pruning the foliage, would that encourage fruiting?


I wonder if a  pole bean could succeed on a conifer?
I have one that I'm "limbing up", a circle of pole beans along the drip line could be really neat!
Maybe some gourds while I'm at it, and leave all of it up for Christmas?

Limbing up is a good start. Farmers of the Seminole nation grew very vigorous squash up trees, and as you commented, the fruit hung down like ornaments. However, they took care to girdle the tree first, so it was standing dead. A simple way to get a trellis.

I've grown tomatoes and squashes up small deciduous trees, but the fruiting was much diminished.  Even in my hot bright climate, I notice pole beans not giving much harvest if they get too much shade.

I would look to perennial vines for training up trees, and would plan on deciduous trees. Something like a passionfruit or akebia or even a vigorous grape variety  might actually prosper. I have seen very vigorous climbing roses (generally the once-blooming species roses) climb an oak with spectacular results. Unfortunately, though, the water given the rose killed the oak, as the California native oaks are not adapted to summer water.

The only time I have ever seen a vine successfully climb a conifer, it was an established honeysuckle vine at an abandoned homestead. It ran clear to the top and streamed out like a maypole. A spruce had sprouted next to the vine long after the vine was mature. I can't imagine an annual vine or a young perennial thriving in the footprint of a conifer, except perhaps a pine. Spruce, hemlock, cedar, and fir all are allellopathic, in addition to casting dense shade and having hungry roots. They secrete toxins with the express purpose of preventing new plants from sprouting or growing nearby.

Having tried to garden in a forest, I think people underestimate the range and effectiveness of live tree roots, They will go for yards and yards, and concentrate new growth in areas with water and nutrients, ie gardens. It is far less labor to have a small but productive patch elsewhere, or even to build a raised beds than to fight them.  And if you do make raised beds, be sure to put down landscape fabric before you set the bed in place. Don't neglect to put a barrier, and don't put it in afterwards or roots will come in the edge.  I have had to completely empty a 4x10x3 foot raised bed.and start over.  Tree roots had made it into a solid cube of woody root, and we had to take the whole thing apart with an axe. There was less than a bucket of loose soil left in the entire bed.