Growing Wild beans!

[veggiechicken]

Growing beans on living supports - ?daft idea

Just thinking aloud here

Could you grow beans (twining habit) up living plants like raspberry canes, fruit trees or shrubs?
I'm thinking of a plant with an open structure, not a very leafy one.
Maybe grow a host plant as a permanent bean support that could be used every year.
Beans frame are reused for many years, with the addition of fertiliser at the base, so why not use a living structure too. Perhaps 2 crops from one space?

I'd be interested in your thoughts - yes, really I would.

[Chippy Minton]

Isn't that the principle behind the beans corn and squash "three sisters" approach. Grow the beans up the corn. Don't see why it wouldn't work for other things, but maybe you need to stagger the productive times so they don't interfere at the wrong times.

[SarrissUK]

Following this one with interest as I have a huge amount of beans to grow this year

[Greenleaves]

We have a guy over our allotments who grows beans on a living hazel frame....

[Jungle Jane]

Beans could get lost amongst the shrub,more difficult to harvest than on poles. If they were vining on my fruit trees they might bring ants & aphids but that happens anyway I don’t like beans strangling my corn wherever they want,some areas they can but they can completely strangle a cob stopping it from growing,when they’re growing up canes you don’t have to worry about what they’re getting up to

[Chestnut]

Maybe sunflowers as the supports? The flowers should attract the bees, and stems would support the beans.
Added bonus of sunflower seed snacks -for you or your garden birds, depending how quickly you get bored of shelling the kernels...

[Snadger]

If they have no support beans will quite happily grow along the ground.

Jay el inherited a couple of glassless greenhouses and grew his beans up those.

Any tree which has its first branches start above 6 foot high would do but the roots of the beans would steal nutrients from the tree. Beans would also need a lot of water and growing beans could be at the detriment of the tree.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks for all your comments

Corn and sunflowers are out as I don't grow corn and have little joy with sunflowers.
I already grow CFBs on a glass-less GH frame and have done for several years - same spot, no watering.

However, I do have a lot of random raspberry canes, some non-fruiting apple trees (too young) and some alder and hazel bushes that do very little.
I also have lots of beans that would love to grow. If picking was too difficult they could be left for dried beans - which is, I think, what happens with the 3 sisters method.

[veggiechicken]

How embarrassing!! I had the same Nutty Idea 2 years ago and did very little about doing it!

Maybe this year.

[Snadger]

How embarrassing!! I had the same Nutty Idea 2 years ago and did very little about doing it!

Maybe this year.

How embarrassing...……….nobody noticed

[Snadger]

If you have a surplus of climbing beans VC and no where for them to climb, just sow them and let them run along the ground and use them as ground cover.

[veggiechicken]

I don't think that would work too well with the chickens digging around them.

After I asked about this "idea" the second time round, I went to bed dreaming of a "jungle" garden, where the trees dripped with beans and squashes and other climbing plants.
Reminded me of the time I was exploring the Amazon jungle..............

[Snadger]

I don't think that would work too well with the chickens digging around them.

After I asked about this "idea" the second time round, I went to bed dreaming of a "jungle" garden, where the trees dripped with beans and squashes and other climbing plants.
Reminded me of the time I was exploring the Amazon jungle..............

Well here's an idea, plant them in pots suspended from branches and let them roam.

[Bren In Pots]

I've got a permanent bean row but I also add tripods in any spare ground for beans and courgettes, it seems to work out OK.

[Mark_Riga]

I'll be growing these drying beans again this year. Grew them a few years ago and got a very good crop of dried beans but when sowed some last year they didn't germinate (I'd left it too long) so have bought some fresh seed. I'll grow most in a row with a net to climb but might spread some round as an insurance having read this. I grow mainly dwarf beans now as last time I tried climbing beans, something (rats I assume but never saw them) bit through all the stems in the row that was just beginning to be productive.

https://www.organiccatalogue.com/see...anic-seeds.htm