Market Farming

["Marlin Burkholder" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>]

> I'm soliciting new ideas for ways to efficiently grow
> my pole beans.

For the past two years I have built a simple trellis consisting of 7' steel
T posts placed about 10 paces (30') apart with a single strand of 12 gauge
high tensile wire clipped as close as possible to the top.  The end posts
are leaned out to a 70 degree angle from the ground and the HT wire is
brounght down to the ground at about a 45 degree angle and anchored at
ground level with a piece of broken off T post driven securely into the
ground.  I used a HT ratchet type wire tightener to tension the wire to the
max without popping the clips on the end posts  To save money I placed a 1"
x 1" wooden oak pole bean post midway between the steel posts to give myself
a 5 pace (15') spacing between posts.  A fence staple driven straight into
the end grain holds the wire at the top of the wooden posts.  One could use
all steel posts at 4 - 5 pace intervals quite effectively but more
expensively.  Steel posts of this length can cost from $3.50 - $4.50 each in
this area.  I get my wooden stakes cut at a local sawmill for 50 cents to a
dollar each.  I don't recommend using all wooden stakes as one could expect
a breaking off problem.

I then get sissal type baler twine and hang strands of it off the HT wire at
6" intervals and long enough to reach the ground plus enough extra to tie a
loop around 1" stakes lined up on the ground under the trellis.  These
stakes are the remains of my old tomato stakes I discarded several years ago
as I was having too much trouble with tomato stake breakoff. It takes one
person a long time to do the string tying on a 150 - 200 ' trellis but two
people, one cutting and tying the strings on the top and one tying the
bottoms can move along nicely and get the job done in a couple of hours.
Next year I'm thinking of dispensing with the sticks and tying on the ground
and just letting the strings dangle loosely.  Once the beans get to running
and climbing good one would think the plant roots would effectively anchor t
he strings.  I'm a little scared though of high winds before the bean row
gets well established.

When the season is over one can cut all the bean vines and strings off the
wire, roll up the wire, and jerk the posts.  My main criticism of the
postings recommending the use of cattle panels for the crop to climb on is
the expense of the cattle panels and required posts to hang them on plus the
issue of moving the heavy things around and storing them.  Enough 15' panels
and T posts (three posts per panel) to build a 150' trellis starts to get
into some money.  I can build the entire 150' trellis for little more than
the cost of several cattle panels using the wire and string method.  The
only thing I need to rebuy each year are some wire clips and the string.  I
figure I could probably store all the materials needed to build 500 row feet
of trellis in the same space occupied by an average sized johnny house.

I already have about 15 cattle panels I use for building a trellis to
support climbing sugar snap peas.  In the past I  have had trouble getting
the pea vines to properly attach themselves and stay up on the trellis.
This past year I decided to try leaning the trellis about 15-20 degrees off
vertical and planting the peas on the upper side of the leaned over trellis.
With the trellis oriented east to west parallel to the prevailing spring sun
angle, I was hoping the peas would incline to grow upwards and towards the
south facing sun and spread themselves naturally on top of the trellis.
Instead they tended to grow straight upwards and did even worse at attaching
than they would have had they been planted against a vertical trellis.  Next
year I plan to try the same thing with the peas planted under the leaned
over trellis.  I'm hoping they will then grow up and through the wire
sufficient to attach themselves.

I had a similar experience this summer growing runner beans around the
perimeter of a 20' diameter geodesic dome. I made the same mistake by
planting the beans around the outside of the base.  The beans just wouldn't
climb the dome and the whole thing fissled.  Next year I will try planting
them 6" - 8" on the inside.  I promise that if I ever get the thing to work,
I will get a picture of it posted somewhere in cyberspace.

Enough said,
Marlin Burkholder
VA