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Growing green beans and peas in my raised garden bed and wanted to know about supports for these plants. For the peas I plan on just using canes in the ground and tying them up as such. I also purchased trellis netting and was thinking of just tying it to two posts like a soccer net for the beans. Will this be sufficient? I have pictures of my plans with the canes for the peas.

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These are just sticks/ canes I had in the garage, I'll buy some more of them or something similar and plan on sticking in a total of 8 of these two stick structures for the peas. and having two plants per each stick so 2*2*8 = 32 pea plants in 2x2 square feet of raised garden bed.

Mathstatsstudent
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Not quite sure what "trellis netting" is, but it sounds like something with holes that the bean plants are supposed grab onto and support themselves as they grow taller.

This is the way pea vines grow. They have tendrils growing out of their stems that can coil around and grab at little strings and small things. Here is a close up of a tendril in action:

snap pea tendril close up

The picture is from https://www.epicgardening.com/how-to-grow-peas/.

So a network of strings is perfect for pea tendrils to grip.

But beans climb in a different way. They wrap their entire main stem around a pole or stick, and sort of "screw" their way, round and round, up to the top (and beyond). Like this:

bean climbing technique

They curve always to the right as they climb up, counterclockwise viewed from above.

So a plastic net or network of strings doesn't really work well for them since they don't have any little tendrils to grip it with.

Your setup looks good for the peas, but for the string beans, I recommend poles, or tall sticks, the taller the better. I have never been able to supply a pole tall enough that my beans couldn't surpass it. Even though I was unable to pick the beans on top even with a ladder.

Lorel C.
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  • " I have never been able to supply a pole tall enough that my beans couldn't surpass it.". So I think you are doing wrong. I would not use a pole taller then my arms could reach. So peas will go horizontally or down and up on various poles. There is not need to have peas where nobody could reach and harvest. – Giacomo Catenazzi Jun 13 '19 at 14:13
  • Well, it was kind of an experiment to find out just how tall beans would grow, and I have never found out. They race to the top of whatever I provide and then the vine keeps going, groping around for something else higher to grab onto. Peas will go up or down, but I have never known a *bean* to climb downward. When they get too tall, sometimes they just *droop* down by gravity, but they won't coil down anything. – Lorel C. Jun 13 '19 at 14:22
  • When they get to the top of the pole, pinch out the end of the shoot. Unless you plan to use a step ladder to pick them, you are growing the plant for the beans, not for the leaves! – alephzero Jun 13 '19 at 14:40
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    Nice answer @LorelC; I would add for climbing beans build the structure solid, solid, solid. Make it as 3-D as possible, supports and struts and bury the main support footings about 2 feet deep, since a good wind acting on heavy top growth will bring the whole thing down and be tough to pull back up. Avoid dry old brittle poles and imagine the shame of having to tie your supports to the neighbour's fence. – Colin Beckingham Jun 13 '19 at 14:50
  • What would you build the support structure with (Ideally inexpensive) – Mathstatsstudent Jun 13 '19 at 15:24
  • So if I buy something like several of these https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-6-ft-Green-Colored-Heavy-Duty-Sturdy-Stakes-ST6HDVG/203894424 will that suffice? is there anything else I need to do to help the beans up them? Is it one bean plant per stick? – Mathstatsstudent Jun 13 '19 at 15:27
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    @Mathstatsstudent I think those should be ok. The bumps on those poles ought to prevent the vines from slipping down as they climb. I usually just use wooden poles, & sometimes (especially with my height obsession) I have to pound in a couple lil support posts angled and tied to the main pole a couple feet above the ground to form sort of a "tripod". But with those metal HD poles (stronger and skinnier), you could prob. pound them in a bit deeper, maybe they wouldn't tip over, & might be ok with just a pole, no other structure (?). If they start to lean, use guy lines to keep them vertical. – Lorel C. Jun 13 '19 at 15:59
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    Also, a couple or 3 bean plants have **no problem** sharing a pole. – Lorel C. Jun 13 '19 at 16:00
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Steel wire fencing works well ; wires about 2" X 4" apart. Whatever the local hardware store has ( garden shops may have the same fence at a higher price because it is "trellis"). It can be reused for years.

blacksmith37
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