Pole Beans VS Bush Beans Pros And Cons
Pole Beans VS Bush Beans Pros And Cons
In this blog, we will discuss some pros and cons of pole beans and bush beans. Please do not get us wrong, each kind involves about the same amount of work. The major difference is one trellises and the other one doesn’t. Let’s continue on with bush beans.
Bush Beans
The pros about growing bush beans are the plants are short like a bush, so most plants support themselves and do not need staking. You may add some support to the plants if they are a heavy yielding variety causing plants to get weighed down. But bush beans aren’t usually supported. These are great for a smaller garden, since they are more of a compact plant compared to the pole variety.
The cons of bush beans is, when picking, being on the ground will hurt your back after a while. Next, with moving the plants around can result in breaking plants. Also, when picking a lot of bush beans, it is likely you might miss some. For me, it is like playing hide n seek with the beans (lol). I still always miss some, it never fails.
Pole Beans
The pros about picking pole beans, they seem faster to pick since they are on vines. The reason for this is that the beans are hanging from the vines. Also, your back does not hurt as bad because of less bending involved.
Cons for pole beans is setting up a support system for the pole beans to climb. This has to be set up at the beginning of the season. The reason is so as they grow, you will be able to wrap the vines around the next section. When setting up a support system and picking, you might need a ladder too. Let the support system be a trellis, or a tee pee for them to climb. What we use is just t post and bailing twine. We string in between the t post just like we do with our tomatoes. This system works well for us and does not take up much time. Another con is nothing else can be planted close to them because the vines will wrap around other plants. This happens if you do not train the vines to go where you want them t0.
Bean Pods
Both pole and bush bean produce wonderful varieties of beans. Bush beans grow shorter pods because they are compact. Pole beans can grow much large and longer pods. An example of a longer bean would be the yard long bean. We will be expanding our bean collection in this up-and-coming season. Be sure to check back in the fall of 2022.
