Normal pole beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris) do best if you plant 3 beans per hill with 12 inches between hills in the row and 4 feet between rows. The reason for this is so that you can use a hoe to clean out weeds between the hills. This works out to 3 seed per ft or 1 bean every 4 inches if you average out the spacing.
Runner Beans (Phaseolus Coccineus) and butter beans (Phaseolus Lunatus) need a lot more room. I plant butter beans with 3 beans per hill and about 2 feet between hills in the row. I use the same spacing for Runner Beans but put 1 or 2 seed per hill.
It is important to move beans to a new area of the garden each year, otherwise nutrient extraction and disease build up will cut production. This means the trellis must be easily movable. I build my trellis with 8 ft tall T-posts with a post every 25 feet in the row and with heavy duty anchors on each end. I stretch a wire at the top of the posts and another about 15 inches from the ground. This leaves a nice gap beneath the bottom wire which allows weeding. Bean runners will readily cross a gap of 15 inches. I zig-zag hay baling twine from the top to the bottom wire so that there is a string for the beans to climb about every 2 to 2.5 feet. From start to finish, I can put up a 120 ft long trellis in just under an hour and take it down at the end of the season in about the same time.
DarJones
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