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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Harvest cart - Crawler or Drangen

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  • From: Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Harvest cart - Crawler or Drangen
  • Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:36:08 -0400

On 8/22/2011 at 8:27:06 PM, Marlin Burkholder wrote:
> I build a trellis consisting of a single high tensile wire suspended about
> six and a half feet above ground clipped tp the top of steel T-posts spaced
> about 20 feet apart. One can suspend Hortanova plastic trellis netting
> (quicker) from the HT wire or tie on baler twine drop strings about every
> 6-8
> inches. I can build 150' of this trellis in a couple of hours. At end of
> season I cut off and burn the drop strings or Hortanova and roll up the HT
> wire for next season. I have had some success with letting the Hortanova
> hang for much of the winter and, before the work starts getting crazy in the
> spring, rolling it up, old bean vines and all, and stomping on the roll
> until
> much of the old dried vines have broken up and fallen out. The reused
> Hortanova does not have to have all of last season's vine growth removed to
> be reusable.
>
> Picking these beans while standing up goes much faster and is much more
> comfortable than picking bush beans. They are high yielding and if well
> cared
> for can be picked multiple times over several weeks. One 150' row will
> produce a heckuva pile of beans.
>

My experience with Fortex pole beans is pretty similar. High yield, easy to
pick standing
up. I would add that if you use baling twine, it is probably a good idea to
secure it at
the bottom, in order to keep it still enough for the young bean vines to
latch on. I used
to tie it to a string run along the bottom, but that is tedious. I am
experimenting with
burying it a couple inches away from the planted beans. Getting the beans to
grow up
quickly is the secret. Once they start, they are trouble-free.

As I think I described earlier, I have been suspending the twine from
strapping (1x3)
attached to wooden uprights, themselves attached to U-posts. The nice thing
about this
system is there is no sag as the plants get heavy. The bad thing is that the
posts need to
be placed every 7-8 feet, in order to accommodate the length of the strapping.

My twine is closer together than Marlin's. The nice thing about twine, of
course, is that
it can be composted.

Richard Robinson
www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/
Hopestill Farm
www.hopestill.com






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