Your comments and tips

30 Nov 21, Andrew (New Zealand - temperate climate)

When Scarlett Runner beans get to the top of the frames they tend to drop down to find somewhere to attach. They get really quite top heavy and dark. Can you snip off the top once they go over. By the way we get huge amounts of beans. Also Butter Bean do extremely well here in the BOP

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30 Nov 21, Liz (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

You can safely snip off your scarlet runners when they reach the top of the frames. They will produce more shoots lower down.

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21 Nov 21, Steve (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I live on sunshine coast and was wondering can I plant corn, sweet potatoes and bean in the same patch. So that the bean grow up the corn with the sweet potatoes under neath

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17 Mar 23, Veronica @Bundaberg (Australia - tropical climate)

Sweet potatoes are more a perennial plant, meaning they can be left in the same spot for at least 2 years. Furthermore, when harvesting, you need to dig around in the soil, which is not convenient to other plants. We grow them solely in their own beds. The three sisters is a better way to go.

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07 Jan 22, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 7b Mild Temperate climate)

Beans fix their own nitrogen, which if you like to companion plant (and some people do), the beans don't compete for the nitrogen. Some studies indicate the the beans assist (perk) the other plants by giving them nitrogen WITHOUT over supplying nitrogen - and too much nitrogen can be a problem for some plants (corn in particular). The standard North American Indian Three sisters planting is: Corn, beans and squash. This combination dates back ........ probably centuries and it has been around a long time for good reason: Corn is actually fairly WEAK rooted when young; corn can uprooted fairly easily when it starts growing. Squash on the other hand is a rooting power house. The squash stabilizes the corn. The squash with it's large leaves ALSO shades the soil (all plants that I know of like shaded soil, keeping their roots cooler -- even full sun plants want shaded soil). The beans then scamper up the corn, and perk the corn and squash with nitrogen. What your asking is can I take this classic all time threesome and substitute sweet potatoes for the squash. I really can't see a reason why you could not. It sounds reasonable. Further more Blistering on sweet potatoes can be prevented by adding Borax to soil - and corn loves boron (boron gives corn not only better tassels but better yields). Additionally, both corn and sweet potatoes need and love potassium. So when I think about it... it sounds like a really good combination. Best of Luck.

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23 Nov 21, Anonymous (Australia - temperate climate)

Beans do not require a lot of fertiliser. Corn and sweet potatoes do require a good fertilising. Just my opinion but I'm not a believer in mixing crops together. I think because of the fertiliser and sun requirements it would produce inferior crops. At the moment I have 7 rows of corn 60cm apart, they are 1.8m high. I would like to see how beans and sweet potatoes would have grown in that corn. The beans and sweet potato would have taken a lot of fertiliser and water and the corn crop wouldn't be as good as it is.

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19 Sep 22, Paulg (Australia - temperate climate)

Beans will do fine as I have grown them in any part of the garden with no fertiliser so growing up corn plants will work..

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15 Jul 21, VJ Pertzel (Australia - tropical climate)

Are there any beanfly resistant beans? It is so disappointing to keep losing our bean crops!

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21 Jul 21, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I only grow them in the spring time - no bugs then.

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18 Jun 21, Barker (USA - Zone 8b climate)

I’m in zone 8b and my pole beans grow like mad so I’ve never had problems with my soil and it’s mostly cow pasture about 30 years ago in other words there’s nothing in it only what I put in it. I started some raised garden beds with rich top soil and I planted small amount of seeds basically what I planted in the big garden except for a few. My pole beans were over 7 years old along with some of the other seeds but I used them to. Before you plant your beans check them out if you see a tiny little hole in it they will not grow. I soak my beans for 20 minutes before hand planting

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