Pole beans: 63 good and bad companion plants

Other names

climbing bean, string bean, French bean

Botanical name

Phaseolus vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. vulgaris

Family / Genus

Fabaceae / Phaseolus

Plant category

Legumes

Peter Turner Photography/Shutterstock.com

The climbing bean is closely related to runner beans and bush beans. Like the runner bean, it needs a climbing frame to grow up.
It originates from South America, just like the other garden beans, so it's sensitive to cold. Don't plant it outdoors until the last night frosts have passed.

Facts and figures

Light requirements

Sun

Nutrient requirements

Light feeder

Difficulty level

Easy

Culture (according to Gertrud Franck)

A - tall or wide crops, almost year-round

Culture (according to Sister C. Weinrich)

Main crop

Growing period

70 days

Row spacing

100 cm

Plant spacing

40 cm

Sowing depth

2 cm

Germination temperature (minimum)

8 °C

Germination temperature (optimal)

18 - 22 °C

Germination type

Light and dark

Pre-growing period

30 days

Planting & harvest times of Pole bean

Direct sowing

Pre-grow

Transplant

Harvest

Direct sowing from Late April to Late May. Transplant to bed from Mid May to Mid June. Pre-grow about 30 days before transplanting, approximately between Mid April and Mid May. After a growing period of 70 days, harvest can begin around Early July and continues until Late October.

Sow and plant Pole bean

Climbing beans need a support frame to grow up. Put this in place before sowing. Various types of poles work well, such as bamboo canes (also called Tonkin canes), steel rods, or classic bean poles made from spruce, set up in a tipi shape. You can also grow them in a row, with a pole on each side connected at the top by a long horizontal pole. You'll find plenty of great examples online. Once the frame is standing firmly, sow 6 to 8 beans around each pole, about 2 cm deep, and water them thoroughly. The row and planting spacings refer to the approximate distance between the support poles, as the seeds are placed around them.

If slugs are a big problem, you can start climbing beans indoors. Around mid-April, place 6 seeds in a circle in a pot. Plant them out in mid-May. Carefully remove the seedlings and plant them around the poles, wrapping them in the same direction they would naturally twine.

Location and soil

It copes well with most soils. Just make sure the soil is nicely loosened, and during the growing season, give it a gentle loosen now and then if the ground gets compacted. This helps water reach the roots more easily.

Good and bad companions of Pole bean

Alliums – that means onions, garlic, leeks and the like – are not welcome as neighbours for climbing beans.

Very good neighbours

Good neighbours

Lollo biando / Lollo rosso

Bad neighbours

Very bad neighbours

What grows well next to Pole bean

grove has rated 59 neighbours for Pole bean, in four levels. Reading through all of them takes a while. In grove you never study a list: while you plan, the bed itself shows you what fits in that spot, and strong filters leave only the plants that actually come into question.

grove knows that Pole bean is a main crop and suggests Summer savory very good, Winter savory very good and Radish good among others as companion crops that fit particularly well. If there is room, Tomato good is another main crop worth considering in the same bed. And perhaps Pot marigold very good as a helper plant?

But put something like Leek poor or Runner bean poor next to it and the warning lights come on.

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Predecessors and successors of Pole bean

Other legumes, itself, and also lettuce, spinach, carrots and potatoes are not good as predecessors. As successors, legumes, alliums and lamb's lettuce are best avoided too.

Good predecessors

Bad predecessors

Lollo biando / Lollo rosso

Very bad predecessors

Good successors

Bad successors

Very bad successors

Crop rotation

What stood on that bed three years ago is hard to recall come spring. grove remembers. Once you have planned with it for a few seasons it knows your beds and warns you as you plant when a growing break is still running. The other way round, grove points you to the spots where Pole bean fits particularly well right now.

As green manure before Pole bean, grove suggests Oil radish good for example, provided the crop before it fits as well. As the crop before it, grove suggests Tomato good, Courgette good or Broccoli good. After it come Cucumber good, Courgette good or Broccoli good.

As a preceding crop: Lupin very poor, Onion poor, Carrot poor and 30 more plants may only return to the same spot after 3 years. grove still remembers that three years from now. As a following crop: Lamb's lettuce very poor, Lupin very poor and 24 more plants may only return to the same spot after 3 years.

And as soon as next year is planned, the Garden Fairy looks for the right green manure for the cold season in between all by itself, Spinach for example. How the Garden Fairy works

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Varieties

Besides the varieties with green pods, there are also ones with purple, yellow, and red or purple speckled pods. These are easier to spot when picking. The colour disappears during cooking – they all turn green again.

Care and fertilising

As a legume, it can fix and use atmospheric nitrogen with the help of root nodule bacteria. So you don't need to fertilise climbing beans. A light helping of compost in spring before planting does no harm though. In dry weather, give them a good watering once or twice a week.

Diseases and pests

Susceptible to

Stem nematode

Two-spotted spider mite

Harvest and processing

Once the first green pods have reached a decent size – the beans inside should only be slightly visible – you can start harvesting on a rolling basis. From then on, pick the pods every 2 to 3 days. This also boosts the yield. You can keep the beans in the fridge for about a week, though the strings along the seams may toughen up. If you've harvested more than you can eat and they're piling up in the fridge, you can blanch and freeze them or preserve them with tasty recipes.

You can also wait for the seeds to fully ripen – they're ready when the pods are dry. Our bean poles are so tall that beans at the top always ripen fully, simply because we can't reach them. Let the shelled beans dry thoroughly and store them somewhere airy, for example in small cloth bags. They'll keep for a good 2 years.

Beans must be cooked before eating – they're poisonous raw.

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