White Half Runner Pole Beans and Corn

[Prag]

I was talking to a couple of folks that raise some pretty darn decent gardens around here and mentioned I’d like to plant some Pole Beans this year in my raised beds.

They suggested I plant some corn about 3 weeks before I plan to plant my beans and then plant the beans so they can use the corn to grow on.

They told me the White Half Runners do a good job of this since they don’t grow as tall as other varieties.




(I can always add some lattice for the beans to grow on if necessary, but this sounds like a good method.)




Have any of you had experience growing beans and corn in this manner?

Any thoughts or suggestions based on your experiences would be appreciated.

I did a search and didn’t run across this topic, although I may well have overlooked it.

Our raised beds did great with tomatoes and okra last season, and I’m looking forward to growing some beans this year.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Regards,

Prag

[sbemt456]

Hey Prag, I made the mistake of planting half runner beans in the corn one year and swore I would never do that again. From my experience with half runner beans they will climb as high as there is something to support them.Not to mention in the hot humid Kentucky summers, being in the corn trying to pick beans and burning up and itching to death. We always had better luck using river cane to stick the beans or make trellis for them.
Good luck with what ever method you choose. They are a wonderful bean for canning.

Have a great day !

stella

[Prag]

Thank you Stella;

I like the idea of river cane and will have to look into it...at least as an alternate.

I'm planning on kind of doing the "Three Sisters" thing, and adding acorn squash to the mix.

My hopes are, since these will be raised beds, they may be a bit easier to handle.

This is only our 3rd year gardening, so it's a learning experience for us.

We've had some pretty remarkable success the past few years. I'm in East Tn and just pulled my greens a couple of weeks ago, that wintered over very well.

We want to do whatever we can to decrease our dependency on the just-in-time delivery system our country is plagued with and increasing our self-sufficiency.

We only have the space for raised beds at this time, and want to maximize the yield for foods we are able to can.

I appreciate your taking the time to reply. We may well, in the end, make a trellis for them.

Great info here. Thanks to all. :)


Prag

[TEX]

Cattle Panels attached to t posts work great for beans and such and you can easily move them to another bed or take them down inthe fall.

[Prag]

Cattle Panels attached to t posts work great for beans and such and you can easily move them to another bed or take them down inthe fall.

That's really a good suggestion Tex. Thank you.

I like the idea of re-use and portability.

Besides, It's a good excuse to stop by Tractor Supply. :D

Prag