What's your opinion on bean arbors?

[kyredneck]

Sept 11, 2014 20:41:50 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

Here's a bean trellis I  built out of cedar 15 years ago. I still use two of them for Lima beans. I love these trellises, but on a larger scale they are not practical to build.

I'm wondering about permanent fixed trellises such as this or the 'bean house (?)'. Do you rotate beans with other vining plants for disease control? Or is it OK to plant beans in the same spot every year?

[flowerweaver]

kyredneck Actually, this trellis is not permanently fixed, and it was moved last year (this spot is now a donkey dust bath). These are made from cedar and are sunk into post holes filled with rock and gravel for drainage. They are 14 years old and only show a little bit of decay on the bottoms. I put some Thompson's wood seal on them about every three years. But then I do live in a semi-arid climate where rot is less likely than cracking from sun damage.

As far as rotation, some years I picked one of them on which to grow morning glories. The soil in that particular bed was amended every couple years with topsoil that washes down in our creek, which we 'mine' and yearly amended with manure, etc. I didn't really see any decline or pests over the decade that spot was used. But it was much smaller in scale than what I now am doing. I've gone from what I call big gardening to small scale farming.

For the past two years I have been growing larger quantities of beans in fields. Because I have recently begun growing corn I will start rotating crops. Mainly I will be rotating the bush types, but probably not the pole beans because of the effort involved in putting up the t-post trellising and because they are in a strip field between our trail and fence so they create privacy from a new neighbor. I also see the nitrogen-fixing beans as beneficial to preparing the way for the next corn crop. The soil here is pretty impoverished.

Over all I think having lots of small fields separated by natural vegetation over the property has worked well to keep damaging insects away. We also have a healthy Myotas cave bat population, and the second largest Mexican free-tailed bat colony in the world close by. I can sit in the field at dusk and as the mosquitos draw close to my body the bats will swoop down in front of my face to get them before they get me! If only I could get them to do this in the daytime.

[kyredneck]

Lol, it's hard to imagine you all actually planting morning glories, they're a sneaky creeping, crawling weed here, big time.

Corn, I've the 'want to', but haven't decided yet. Between mid-summer storms, deer, raccoons, and Japanese Beetles I've not such a good success rate with it.

What's the structure behind the trellis, a frame for a hoop house or green house?

[flowerweaver]

LOL, a shade structure! Here, we have too much sun for summer crops. This year we just grew them in the side yard which was partial shade until the tornado took out the trees (and tomatoes...) so it will probably be back to shade cloth next year. We use 50%.

2005-12 tomato shade structure without shade cloth


2013 tomato shade structure


(Now the addition of the donkey and dust bath)


This was my solution, which could be used for other materials besides shade cloth. We used cheap PVC, the kind that you run electric through, and used a doorknob circle cutter to make a hole just big enough for the t-post to fit through. We stretched the shade cloth over it and secured it with rope and bungees. Doing so, we are able to keep the cloth from being ripped by the metal posts. The shade cloth really makes being in the garden in the summer bearable!



Here's a larger structure that shades basil, peppers, eggplants. Poles stay but shade cloth comes down after summer so winter greens have plenty of light.

[kyredneck]

Cool, 'creative engineering', good pics, iluvit. There could be applications for shade cloth here midsummer sometimes also.

Sage, I'm curious, what's your water supply there? Well? Cistern? 'City water'?

[add]

Sorry to hear about the loss of those shade trees; I imagine they don't grow real fast there.