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I am a newbie planning to plant out some green beans, which I have
already started off in the kitchen (current height is 12 to 18 inches).
Planting out this weekend in Yorks if there is no frost.

Question: I will plant the beans up against wooden fence panels. Will a
few lengths of twine strung laterally across the fence panels be OK for
support? The site is pretty well sheltered from the wind.

Thanks,
Bruce


Wind the string around the beans*, and fix the string to a horizontal
support ideally old metal conduit at least 6 to 8 feet high, fixed
on uprights. Again ideally old conduit. The beans follow the sun
and wind themselves around the string. Use thick polyproplylene
string, not ordinary twine. When the beans reach the horizontal
beam, train them ariund that and they will become self-supporting
or at least not wholly dependent on the string. Fix canes at four
or six feet intervals at an angle, fix a horizontal cane to this
and loosely attach the strings to that for added support in windy
conditions.

* In the Northern hemsisphere, from above, runner beans
wind clockwise, all other climbing beans anti clockwise.
So wind the string in the other direction. French beans etc
are a southern hemisphere crop which never naturalised.
Or the other way around.

If you start the beans off in 3 inch pots, run a short length of
string through the compost when filling the pot, which is gently
wound around the plant as it grows, You can then loop this through
a longer string you already have hanging down attached to the
uprights.

At the end of the season, cut off all the vines at ground level
leaving the nitrogenous root nodules in the soil, and remove the
bean vines on the strings. Using a stout pair of leather gloves
the strings can all be pulled out off the vines ready for next
year before composting the vines. Try not lo leave any odd lengths
of propylene string lying about, as it can cause problems for
wildlife.


michael adams

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