2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[Blue-Jay]

Hello Blue-Jay --
I was just wondering how you are coming on updating your Bean Collectors Window availablle seeds?
It's not that I 'need' any, I'm just slightly obsessed.
I don't see Californian or Red Valentine (round seeded) on there yet. Will they be available?

I will update the website if I can catch up with the orders for awhile. Actually I haven't even started yet to update the website. It's been crazy busy. I haven't even done my annual bean show here. The round seeded Red Valentine will be available. You should sit tight. When I get the new beans added you will have more and more choices.

 

[colcol]

'Crazy busy' sounds like business has been good which I'm happy for you! I was just curious and yes, I'll hold tight Thank you.
Also looking forward to your annual bean show.
take care.

 

[Michael Lusk]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

 

[flowerbug]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

a six foot tall chunk of fencing is my preference because then i can see how high they'll get.

i often just find out when i plant them as bush beans and then have some sprawl all over the neighbors, which isn't the best approach but it happens.

the extra fun happens when i get a pole outcross and it grows down the row of bush beans and i want to see how far it will go so i let it run and then i find out it doesn't have any traits i really want anyways.

 

[heirloomgal]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

I use sticks from the bush and I plant the seeds in rows like I do bush beans, plunking the stick in next to each seedling. I make sure the sticks have little Y branch nibs so the bean vine can get hung up on them as it goes up. Most of the semi-runners I've grown go up about 4 feet, but I've found definitions on what people call a 'semi-runner' can vary. A few I received with that description I'd describe as poles more so, as they went to 6 feet. One year I tried planting seeds around a single fat stick instead, and the yields went way down that year.

 

[Artorius]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

I plant semi-runners similarly to @heirloomgal . If more runners appear, I simply add new sticks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

I have not seen the term semi-pole but I'd also assume they mean semi-runners. I've installed posts at the end of the row and stretched a strip of welded wire between them so they have something to climb on. I put a couple of guywires on the posts to keep them erect when the weight or wind gets to be too much.

I've also stretched a wire across the top and hung strings down for the beans to climb on. I gently wrap the ends of the strings around the runners to help them get started.

 

[flowerbug]

note there is a habit called sprawl which is not bush or semi-runner or pole. that is, it gets long but it does not climb or wrap around supports or strings.

 

[heirloomgal]

note there is a habit called sprawl which is not bush or semi-runner or pole. that is, it gets long but it does not climb or wrap around supports or strings.

Purple Dove was like that for me. And while I really like that bean, I'm not crazy about that type of growth. I wound up sticking in a bamboo pole next to the longest plant and tying it to the stick, and it still refused to wrap itself on there.

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year I'm growing a couple of beans that were termed "semi-pole" by the person I got them from. I've basically grown bush beans and pole beans but not a semi-anything before. I've no doubt some of you have though. How would you suggest I plant them (a row or grouped around a pole?) and if not using a pole, what kind of support have you had success with? Thanks for your help!

I just wonder if semi pole is what I would call a semi runner. I plant them on 8 foot long 4 foot wide handy panels from Tracktor Supply Store. I support them with wooden steaks that have a point cut on one end. I use 1 x 2 inch furing strips. I cut the strips to about 4 feet tall. Drive them into the soil about 12 inches deep. I then fasten the handy panels to my steaks with cable ties. I put one steak at each end of a 8 foot long panel and one in the middle. I arrange the whole structure in rows. Here is a photos from early this past season.