Green Bean Trellis: Simple Support For Your Climbing Beans

Do you like growing green beans but dislike how messy and tangled densely grown beans look when they climb and cover any structure in their path? You are not alone!

But did you know that you can make use of a trellis to provide your climbing beans with vertical support and increase their visual appeal?

In this post, we will take a comprehensive look at what a beans trellis is and how to build a simple DIY trellis for your climbing beans. Read on.

What Is A Beans Trellis?

If you are an experienced gardener, you possibly already know what a trellis is. However, if you are a newbie, a trellis is a framework that supports climbing plants.

It is not just a pole or a stake but a structure that offers an increased area for climbing plants to spread easily.

Trellis not only provides structural support and prevents beans from sprawling on the ground but also optimizes growing space utilization, enhances sunlight exposure, prevents animals from eating your beans, and improves air circulation.

Benefits of a Beans Trellis

Mounting a trellis offers the following benefits:

• It saves space: Mounting a trellis allows you to grow climbing beans vertically, which increases the amount of growing space available in your garden for other plants. 
• It offers structural support and protection: Being a rigid structure, a trellis provides structure support for the plant and also protects the plants from the impact of strong winds. 
• It aids disease prevention: A trellis can aid disease prevention by enhancing sunlight exposure and promoting good air circulation. 
• It aids pest management: Building a trellis makes it easier for you to monitor your plants, as well as observe and manage insects, pests, and diseases. 
• It promotes easy harvesting: A trellis makes it easier to harvest your green beans. 
• It enhances the beans’ quality: A trellis can help produce higher-quality bean plants. 
• It adds aesthetics to your garden: Finally, a well-built trellis can be an attractive addition to your garden. 

Steps to Set Up Your Bean Trellis Netting

Climbing beans, such as pole beans and green beans, and some with generous pods, can be weighty. Hence, they need a sturdy support.

In this section, you will learn how to build a simple green bean trellis with our easy step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Drive the posts into the ground

To get started, get as many six to 10 ft. tall poles (or bamboo) as possible depending on how strong you want the trellis to be and the number of bean plants you have – the minimum should be two.

Locate where you want the structure to start, and drive the first pole into the ground. Depending on how long your row of beans is, drive the extra poles into the ground evenly at intervals.

Make sure that the poles cover the entire row of the bean plants.

Step 2: Connect the posts

To build a sturdy support, tie a long pole horizontally to the top of each vertical post to connect them. 

Depending on how sturdy you want the structure to be, you may tie one or two more horizontal poles to connect the vertical posts.

Step 3: Attach cattle panels (or chicken wire) to the posts

Attach a cattle panel to the posts, starting from the first post, securing the cattle panel with about four zip ties on each post.

If you don’t have a cattle panel, you can use a string or twine. Simply tie the twine firmly across the poles in four to five places to connect the poles. 

If you installed just two poles in step 1 above, start the twine at the bottom of the first pole and tie it at about a foot high on the second pole. 

Then, pull it back to the first pole at another one foot high. Do this correspondingly until the twine covers the poles.

If you don’t want to go through the stress of alternating the poles with the twine, you can cut the twine into multiple equal lengths.

Attach each twine to the top horizontal pole and let it dangle down into the bean plants. Repeat this for each twine.

Important Considerations

Here are some important factors to consider when installing your green beans trellis in your garden:

If your green beans are planted on a raised bed garden, try as much as possible to leave some distance between the trellis and the garden bed frame. This will enable the green beans to interweave themselves with the cattle panels/chicken wire/twine as they grow.

The material used in constructing the trellis is also an important consideration. The materials must be strong enough to support the plant and to withstand weather elements. 

For instance, with time, bamboo and hazel poles usually become too brittle, while PVC poles will deteriorate due to harsh weather conditions. But this cannot be an issue if you are building a temporary trellis. 

You need to be watchful of pest attacks on your plant. As the trellis supports the plants, it also provides an avenue for pests to reach any part of your bean plants.

One pest that will attack your bean plants is primarily in the slug or snail family. Slugs or snails can eat your green beans, especially when they are young and tender, and this can stunt their growth.

Conclusion

As you have seen in the post above, a trellis is very important to the growth and development of your green beans, and other plants, such as vine and cucumber. 

A simple trellis can transform your green beans garden into a productive and visually appealing space. It also encourages healthier plants, maximizes your garden, and makes harvesting your beans very easy.

Don’t forget that well-supported green bean plants will yield a bountiful harvest of delicious beans. So, learn how to preserve your beans throughout the year by freezing them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)