"string" beans

I'm finding using string/twine is a game changer for growing beans. I know that's not why they used to be called string beans, but it fits anyway.  I learned this year that beans are a bine, rather than a Vine. A vine has those little curly things that grab onto what it's going to climb, and a bine wraps itself around and around what it's going to climb. I kind of knew this, but didn't really think about it.  I watched video that talked about it. Said you should plant the bean next to what it's going to climb to make it easier. I did this, but I think I planted to late, maybe they didn't get enough sun because they grew about a foot and stopped. But I had a bunch of volunteers grow well. The problem was they were not close to the trellis. I tied string to one of the high rungs, and cut it long enough to touch the soil. I held it taught, and wound the bean around the string. They continue to climb to the top of the trellis. It worked so much better than planting next to the trellis.  
I also had a couple grow on the back side. I put bamboo by the beans and leaned it against the trellis, and this worked well also.

I have used twine for my pole beans to climb up for years. Though, I do attach the bottom of the string to a cross piece. It does work great, doesn't it. If I use jute or cisal or something, I can just cut the vines at the end of the year and toss the whole thing in the compost pile :), no need to untangle things like if I was using a metal or plastic trellis.

I have used the string method for a couple of years and find it to be the best. I grow peas on horizontal strings threaded across bamboo stakes. Green beans are growing up vertical strings. Similar to how I trellis tomatoes and cukes.

I am using a layered approach this year. I started the beans south of the peas as they came to their end. I also started runner beans behind and closer to the pea stalks to get them to climb the peas. I can see some flowers starting on them. I started the first row of green beans indoors and after they went into the ground, I sowed another row of beans in ground right behind the foot tall starts. I pruned some of the low leaves on the older plants to let in the light for the second row. At this point, they are all intermixed and producing like mad. The row is only six feet long and I have the beans every six inches or so. It is a jungle!

The pic shows them at solstice. I need to take another shot of them now.

I generally am too lazy to put up strings. This year I did for the peas and it resulted in a lot better production.

I plant all the viney (biney?) stuff in with the corn. It works pretty well but usually end up with a vast mess of tomatoes, beans, squash and cantaloupe all trying to kill each other. Tomatoes climb corn surprisingly well.

Thom Bri wrote:Tomatoes climb corn surprisingly well.

I have volunteer cherry tomatoes that are shooting up a sunflower. Also a Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) that is climbing another sunflower. Should be interesting to see if there are any squash hanging from the sunflower by the end of the season.

This is how they are doing today.

Though I don't have runner beans, I grow a lot other stuffs on strings and trellises this year. This technique is widely used in high tunnel farming for high value crops. The biggest advantage I see is how much more sunlight the leaves get to harvest. See the roughly 6 ft by 7 ft area for squashes. If everything is growing flat on the ground, it can only accommodate 2-4 plants. But I am able to get over a dozen and they are thriving and producing. So the leaf area increased like 5 times by string trellising.

Marco Zolow wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:Tomatoes climb corn surprisingly well.

I have volunteer cherry tomatoes that are shooting up a sunflower. Also a Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) that is climbing another sunflower. Should be interesting to see if there are any squash hanging from the sunflower by the end of the season.

The squash and beans love to climb sunflowers. Generally it gets too heavy up top and pulls them over by fall.