Recommendations for pole beans (dry)

[homegrower]

Has anyone used sunflowers as an alternative to corn?

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

I have never been able to get beans to grow very well on either corn or sunflowers. Chain-link fences on the other hand work quite well (also for the annoying (bindweed) morning glory vines as well).

I have never fully tried a three sisters garden, but if i were to try it would be very different from the conventional method. I would plant them each in their own group, but nearby each other. In other words i would plant a grouping of squash in one spot, a grouping of corn in another, and a plot of beans nearby. That way they would not be competing for sunlight and/or water. I think it would just work better in my climate, but probably better in other climates as well.

I would choose a glassy-type flint corn.
I would choose a squash that is known to do well in my area. (currently i like the Hopi White for seeds, and my Wild Pueblo for breeding purposes)
For beans i would probably choose one or all of Anasazi, Zuni Gold, Black/Red N.M. Appaloosa. I have heard that there are both pole and bush types for Anasazi beans.

Edit: oh, p.s. last year i tried growing Rio Zape beans (aka. hopi string beans) and they did pretty well. Even had purple pods. They might do well on corn, but i wouldn't know for sure.

[12540dumont]

Homegrower, somewhere back in the forum I reported on my experiment with Sunflowers and Beans. A dismal failure. And something to bear in mind. Sunflowers are allopathic. That means they give off an herbicide from their roots. It doesn't kill everything, but it does kill cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum and B. Japonicum) and several mustards that are weeds here. And they will kill some other weeds by sucking the water out of the soil, and it gets up quick and shades other weeds.

It also kept the beans from sprouting. For those interested in Sunflowers, have a look at the Land Institute's work with sunflowers. They are looking at perennial sunflowers. I thought by now some one would try to cross St. Joe's backfiring sunchoke with a sunflower.

[paquebot]

Beans will climb certain types of sunflowers, the ones with smooth stalks. Most sunflowers have fuzzy stalks which the beans will refuse to climb. I've had pole beans and sunflowers growing side-by-side and the beans would rather crawl on the ground than climb the sunflower.

Also, I believe that only the sunflower seeds are allelopathic, not the roots or stalk.

Martin

[homegrower]

That's good to know...what's a St. Joe backfiring sunchoke?

[steev]

Holy Fartichokes, Batman!

[homegrower]

Backfiring Batman Fartichokes?lol

[mickey]

Beans Beans