[lettice]

I have grown runner beans and flat beans for years.
I normally grow my runner beans up a traditional triangle cross pole setup and my flat bean on another one that are separate from each other.
About 5 foot high and four foot across, top is the poles crossed, bottom width is about 2 feet.

This gives me a lot runner beans, really too many.
So am thinking to grow runner beans up one half and flat beans up the other.
I've done a rough diagram to show what I mean.

Has anyone ever done this and apart from making sure you tease the beans to their side, would you see any other problems?

[Hampshire Hog]

Hi Lettice
Lovely drawing!
I have mixed various types of beans on a similar structure for many years.
These include climbing french beans and runner beans. Crops tend to vary by how vigorous the individual plants are (and how good my prep was!)
I haven’t had any problems and have even added ordinary french beans underneath the bean posts. One strategy I do employ is to sow a bean seed by each pole as I set out the bean seedlings. This means that if the seedlings are attacked by weather or pests I still have a chance to get a crop.
Cheers HH

[mumofstig]

Has anyone ever done this and apart from making sure you tease the beans to their side, would you see any other problems?

None at all, it's quite a common way to grow them 

[lettice]

Thanks.
I will give it a go this year.

[wighty]

We grow french on one side and runners on the other, the only    problem we have is when they get to the top they get tangled but it's not too hard to sort them out and harvest.

[rowlandwells]

we do the same runner and climbing French we always have a long row so we plant half and half we grow our beans in much the same place each year and both  seem to crop heavy most of which goes in the freezer