Runner bean tips

[Cameron91]

Any tips for supporting these runner beans. Beds they are planted in aren’t very deep for long sticks.

 

[cjmmytunes]

Could you try maybe tying yarn or twine between the sticks?

 

[pepper]

I would put some twine or something coming down from the top of that wood fence so they can climb high. Or build a wood frame with netting for them to climb up

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Yes, something that went from the top of the fence to the front edge of the bed, either strings or canes, so the beans grow up on to it. I find it is not necessary to tie between the canes, runners produce a mass of side shoots and make their own support provided they have the verticals.

 

[Susan BBPM]

I agree with what others have said.

An alternative if you want to use canes is to just lean them against the fence and tie them in place at the top. So even with the canes sticking an inch into the soil, with them being fixed to the fence at the top it should be solid enough. Especially if you tied canes across the whole section half way down.

We have a fairly shallow, new bed for our runner beans. We have a farm type wire fence about 3 foot high running along beside it. I just 'wove' the canes through the spaces in the fence and they're barely resting on the ground. It's very solid and the beans are half way up the canes already.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have had a gale force Sou-westerly push a mature row of beans backwards so they leaned against the greenhouse. There is a lot of windage in a solid seven foot high row of foliage, but the wind can't get behind them, it can only push the row more firmly against the fence.

 

[gunslingor]

Seems like a big waste of space to me. Take this with a grain of salt, first time ive done a garden in 35 years, but I'm an engineer and its all systems to me, lol.

Firstly, I beleive runner beans can be planted like 4 to 6 inches appart. Secondly, the only way they can attain energy from the gaps is if you give em something to grow on in the gaps. They arent self supporting. They are vines and like to grow striaght up as quickly as the support will allow... they seem to slow down after a while, so I think the beginning is important. They will start branching out, so 1 pole isnt great for all the arms of a single plant to grow up.

Below is a picture what i did. A single 10 gallon container (only half dirt), with maybe 10 to 15 bean plants... eight next to by cuc trellis. Inside the container, I mounted lots of bamboo to climb up, as well as the fence behing but they dont like it, they want to go UP, as many routes as they can to cover area. I used this to keep the 6 foot bamboo together, surprising it works fine indeed so long as bamboo is thick enough.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWS8VV18/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams

You can get the 6 ft bambo and connector on amazon, 8 ft bambo is better but double cost due to some shipping critical length.

For your situation, you need something much taller, and much more expansive... its okay, prefered imho, if the plants overlap and climb over each other.

So you could do what i did around each existing and train the side shoots to use it. Or you got get something MUCH taller to put in there straight up and down like you have now... but then youll probably want to grab some trellis netting and connect all the vertical into one giant wall of bean.

I.e. beans take much space... but they arent a bush so they can only use it if they have something to climb.

 

[headfullofbees]

Trap some long canes inside the front edge of your bed, leaning back so you can fix then to the top of your fence.
Put a short cane along the bottom of your canes tying them in.