THE BLUE LAKE CANADIAN HEIRLOOM POLE BEAN SEED
How to grow
Developing the Pole Bean
The pole bean itself in compared to the common bush bean is much more involved and takes a little more work to grow (Rhoades, 2014). In order for the bean to grow it requires a support, and there are 3 common methods that most Canadian farmers use that Nepal’s farmers will also find useful (Rhoades, 2014). There is the standard pole method, where the farmer will take an 8 foot pole and will then stick about a foot of the pole in the ground at about ten to 12 inches apart from one another; the pole itself should be rough rather than smooth to help the vine latch on to the rough exterior and grow up the pole (Rhoades, 2014). The second method is for the farmers with flat land rather than the hilly land in Nepal, it is called the bean plant tepee (Rhoades, 2014). With this method three rough poles are placed together with a triangular base and the tops must be tied firmly (Rhoades, 2014). The last method would be a lattice structure, which not only could be built on flat land it could also utilize the extra space in the hill regions and could be built along the terrace walls, thus taking advantage of all the land they have (Rhoades, 2014). These sorts of set ups take more work than the average bush bean, due to the fact that constructing the supports takes time and as the plant grows it is required for the farmer to tie the vine to the support structure, this gives the plant direction, allowing to grow vertically up the structure, so the bean plant can grow as easily as possible without extra stress (Rhoades, 2014).
The cost of these structures varies, depending on the type of wood used and how much is actually used, a standard piece of wood can vary from two to fifteen dollars therefore there is lots of variation (Home Harware, 2014). However the least expensive structure out of the three would be the single pole method because it only requires one pole per plant and does not need other supplies such as rope and in some cases with the tepee and lattice structure netting or wire which increases the total cost significantly (Home Harware, 2014).
The pole bean itself in compared to the common bush bean is much more involved and takes a little more work to grow (Rhoades, 2014). In order for the bean to grow it requires a support, and there are 3 common methods that most Canadian farmers use that Nepal’s farmers will also find useful (Rhoades, 2014). There is the standard pole method, where the farmer will take an 8 foot pole and will then stick about a foot of the pole in the ground at about ten to 12 inches apart from one another; the pole itself should be rough rather than smooth to help the vine latch on to the rough exterior and grow up the pole (Rhoades, 2014). The second method is for the farmers with flat land rather than the hilly land in Nepal, it is called the bean plant tepee (Rhoades, 2014). With this method three rough poles are placed together with a triangular base and the tops must be tied firmly (Rhoades, 2014). The last method would be a lattice structure, which not only could be built on flat land it could also utilize the extra space in the hill regions and could be built along the terrace walls, thus taking advantage of all the land they have (Rhoades, 2014). These sorts of set ups take more work than the average bush bean, due to the fact that constructing the supports takes time and as the plant grows it is required for the farmer to tie the vine to the support structure, this gives the plant direction, allowing to grow vertically up the structure, so the bean plant can grow as easily as possible without extra stress (Rhoades, 2014).
The cost of these structures varies, depending on the type of wood used and how much is actually used, a standard piece of wood can vary from two to fifteen dollars therefore there is lots of variation (Home Harware, 2014). However the least expensive structure out of the three would be the single pole method because it only requires one pole per plant and does not need other supplies such as rope and in some cases with the tepee and lattice structure netting or wire which increases the total cost significantly (Home Harware, 2014).