pole bean question

I have some Blue Lake Stringless pole beans in my garden. I built an 8 foot tall trellis for them to climb on. They very quickly shot up to the top, and now I have 4+ foot of vines waving in the air above the trellis, for a total length of ~12+ feet. Is this normal? How do you normally grow pole beans?

Reply to
Ook
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Um, your name wouldn't happen to be Jack?

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Reply to
Sheldon

Doesn't sound like a problem to me :-).

What I do is put up a trellis/cage/fence (usually closer to 4 feet tall although I guess some of mine are closer to 8), and when they get to the top of it, just let them flop over (in other words, do nothing). At least for me, they don't really wave in the air so much as grow sideways or fall down, so that might be a slight difference.

If they really stay 12 feet in the air once they have fruit, you'll have a hard time picking them.

Reply to
Jim Kingdon

I feel that way sometimes. I have sunflowers pushing 15 feet, they tower way above the corn. My tomatillos have hit 6-7 feet tall, and I no longer have pathways between the rows - they weren't supposed to get so tall! My pumpkin vine is an easy 20 feet long in several directions. And yet I can't get okra or cucumbers to grow worth squat...

Reply to
Ook

Where do you live... what kind of land... sounds like rich bottom land, like mine. Everything I plant grows fast and huge... my top soil goes down like 3-4 feet, black like ebony.

Reply to
Sheldon

Lebanon, Oregon. About 20 miles or so SE of Salem, Oregon, mid Wilamette Valley. This used to be a river bottom, so the soil isn't bad, but it rains so much I think a lot of nutrients leach out quickly. Plus if you dig down a foot or so you quickly hit rock. OTOH, the water table is only 10 feet or so down, so deep rooted trees can sink their roots into the water easily.

Some things just grow like crazy, a few things don't grow very well. People ask me what I do, and I just shrug because all I do is water every now and then. After 15 years of garden hell in Vegas, I'm loving it! My backyard is a forest - my kids get lost in the garden....

Reply to
Ook

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