Had to pick between bush beans and pole beans for my tiny balcony

My rail planter only fits 3 pots so I went with pole beans on a cheap trellis from Home Depot. They climbed like crazy in 4 weeks but shaded out my basil underneath, next time I'm trying bush beans instead. Anyone else regret going vertical on a small space?

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1 Comment

rowanjenkins9d ago

Flip that thinking around. Bush beans are great but they take up horizontal space you clearly dont have on a balcony. Three pots with pole beans gives you way more actual beans per square inch, and the shade problem is easy to fix by just putting the basil somewhere that gets sun, like a hanging basket. Vertical growing also keeps the pods off the ground so they stay cleaner and you can see them better for picking. I bet the trellis paid for itself in the first harvest, and you can always plant something that likes partial shade under it next time, like lettuce or cilantro.