[Welsh Merf]

What are your views ladies and gents?

According to seemingly half the population, beans (French and Broad) can be grown in the same place every year; the other half of the population say that they have to be moved every year. Some people on the allotments have purpose-built heavy-duty frames for their beans, always in the same place, while others move them around.

Which is the best way forward here? Because if they can be grown in the same place every year, I will erect a suitably heavy-duty framework for them.

Your views and opinions are greatly apprectiated as usual.

[snowdrops]

They can be grown in the same place every year if you have had no problems with them in the past or until you do. Most people who do grow them in the same place dig out a trench in the autumn & fill with kitchen peelings etc before covering over & planting in to that, they might move the soil at that point.

[Welsh Merf]

Many thanks for that Snowdrops. I happen to have in my possession two ideal lumps of timber to construct a suitable frame!

[Trillium]

I ditto snowdrops comment. If there's been no disease or pest problems, then you're safe to use the same area. My beans have been in the same area for 7 years now and no problems.

I think the initial idea for rotation was for nitrogen producing crops like beans to move along to other sections in a rotation, which is well and good for farming. Less than practical for home gardens where folks can easily, and cheaply, add nitrogen to needed areas.

[Baldy]

Yup... from my experience unless you actually end up having a problem - which seems to be rare for beans - then you can grow in the same space, year on year - though changing the growing medium seems to be the done thing.
I have a small area that is alloted... for beans and I'm planing on using that space for beans for many a year...

Cheers,
Balders

[Steveharford]

I grow my runners in the same place every year. Open up trench. Dig in veg scraps etc over winter then backfill ready to plant. In fact I still have to backfill yet this year.

[Welsh Merf]

Thank you guys - my confidence is rapidly growing!

[barley]

I do rotate but you've got me wondering now if it is necessary 

[Steveharford]

Oh... And I don't rotate onions and garlic either. If I encountered a disease then that would be a different matter but so far , touch wood !

[Welsh Merf]

Oh... And I don't rotate onions and garlic either. If I encountered a disease then that would be a different matter but so far , touch wood !

Mmm . . . that's a thought for the future! Ta muchly dude! 

[beesrus]

Certainly no pest build up problem that I have come across with beans in the way brassicas/carrots can suffer.
There's a lot of "building" and wind/shelter issues with beans, which might well explain the numbers of people who plant in the same patch every year. Near a hedge and all that.

[AnneB]

I have always moved the bean and the pea bed every year.  This year I want to construct a Munty type frame for beans, and I have an 'A' type frame for tall peas, both of which I'd rather not have to move every year.  I asked Joe Maiden, who has a show on Radio Leeds and is a vegetable expert, if this would be a problem, at a talk he gave at a local society. He reckoned that if your plot is not troubled by disease, it would be fine.  He does the same, and recommended moving the bean bed around every 6 to 7 years as the wood deteriorates.  So that's what I am going to do.

[al78]

I move the beans in the same way as everything else in the rotation. I follow beans with brassicas which hopefully can take advantage of the nitrogen fixed by the beans. There might be a case for inter-planting beans and brassicas as well for the same reason.

[Goosegirl]

I don't grow beans outside but do grow snap peas - presume if you don't have a disease problem the same applies to them? If so, I will build a permanent solid frame for them.

[Totty]

So long as you replenish the soil annually, and have no diseases present, you could in theory plant any type of veg in the same bed every year.

Totty