What have you been feeding them? No high nitrogen fertilizers. They don't need it or want it. Doing so gets you huge "Jack" plants but no beans.

Otherwise - patience. Pole beans grow quite a bit before they begin to produce. Yours are basically 3 weeks old or less so you have some time to go before beans. If you know the name of the variety you can look it up and find out what the DTM is for the variety. That will give you a general guideline to go by.

Dave

Mine easily grow 7-8' before I start seeing flowers.

We initially just mixed a mushroom compost in with garden soil into our original soil. We have horrible soil so we have to add stuff to it. It is a garden soil by miracle grow I believe. The reading I did on the internet said the same thing you guys did--they grow tall & wind around before they start with the flowers, so I feel better. Now they have grown all the way up the top of the trellis's (both)--have 3 plants. They are starting to look for something else to grasp onto. We have some "fake" decorative bird feeders hanging on hooks on our garage where the garden abuts. Thinking of putting them on that. Otherwise, maybe they will just hang on the garage? It's a brick garage. Thanks again all.

3 plants? You might grow a meal! LOL After you taste fresh green beans (I often eat them while IN the garden!) you will find a way to grow more!
They're very easy to grow from seed! I usually plant about 40 in a 4x8' bed and get plenty to eat, give away and freeze for the winter.My pack of seeds says 62 days to harvest, so you might have time to plant more in your area.
They will keep climbing and climbing, but I don't get on ladders to pick anything! I let them flop back down, then they tend to climb again!
After you get your meal of beans ;) , read here all winter to plan your garden for next spring! These boards will get you through the winter!
Happy Gardening and have FUN! Nancy

Nancy, I never grew pole beans, tried bush beans--not too thrilled with the lack of crop so just tried the pole this season. We don't have a huge garden space. We grow cukes which spread all over 1/2 of the garden just about. Then only 5 tomatoes (2 cherry, 3 larger variety), green peppers, onions & herbs. Hopefully, we will get more than one meal from these beans or I won't be doing it again.... :(

I think that the previous poster's point was that you could have planted more than just three plants for your two trellises and then you would have a much larger yield. Beans are very easy to grow from seed and usually are not done as transplants. I have a pole bean teepee planted square foot garden style, so it only takes up 4 square feet and each square foot has 8 bean plants in it. Basically I made a teepee with 8 bamboo poles and each pole got 4 beans planted around it.

Definitely, try pole beans again and grow them from a pack of seeds (my favorite is Fortex from Johnny's Seed). This trellis is 4' wide and about 7' tall and I plant probably 30 seeds I'm guessing in a row at the base. The beans grow to the top and keep growing and spilling over before they're done. I get a good quantity for such a small amount of space. Enough for a bunch of meals, some to freeze, and some to give away. In fact, I think pole beans are the most space-economical plant I grow.

Here they were 30 days ago:
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Here they are this morning:
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Loribee, what prolific plants you have!! Is your trellis home-made, if so--how did you make it, and if not--where do you buy these. I just bought 2 metal ones from Home Depot--about 6 feet tall and about 2 feet wide on the bottom & getting less wide the higher it goes. Since the plants are all in a row, we placed the metal trellis's almost directly next to each other. I don't know what my problem is but last couple times I planted beans (only the bush bean variety)--the one year I got very little, this year--nothing came up at all--so I get very leary of planting beans rather than the plant. That's why when I found the pole bean PLANTS, I was ecstatic. I followed the directions in planting the beans to a tee too!

I have never had luck with bush beans, though I know many people do. I'm a pole bean loyalist.

My trellis is 2 8' studded t-posts that I bought at Tractor Supply for about $6 each. I just hammered them into the soil as far as I could get them (about 12-18"). Between them, I have what I think is rabbit fencing. Bought it in a 50' roll and still have plenty left over. Some day I intend to do a bean arch using 4 of my t-posts, the fencing, and maybe a couple arches of PVC just to keep the top of the arch from caving in. Folks also use cattle panels which are sturdier, but I don't have a truck to get them home, so I bought the fencing I could get in a roll.

There's a nominal up-front cost. If you were just looking to make one trellis, you could buy a roll of galvanized hex for about $8. That would be a total cost of about $20 for the posts and wire, but it would last you years and years.

Pole beans are my garden favorite. Easy to grow, low maintenance, and cost-effective considering what you pay in the stores for beans. Some day, when I'm too old to garden, I think I will still have a couple tomato plants and a row of pole beans.

My Fortex are starting to flower and I wish they weren't, as my Jade bush beans have just started production.

I planted the Fortex much later, and they're supposed to take much longer to produce, so this isn't according to plan.

Succession, not simultaneous. Plants never listen to me.

Patience is indeed the key. We've had a very cool spring and early summer here in SE Wisconsin and the Fortex pole beans I planted from seed in very late May are now about six feet tall and still no flowers. I plant so I get 15 or so plants around my makeshift trellis which is my bird feeder (I feed the birds elsewhere in summer). I just put 2"x3" vinyl coated fencing against it and let 'em go. This is a pic from 2012.

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tj

Ltilton: If it's any consolation, Fortex freezes well. I blanch, dry, then throw in ziploc freezer bags for a future in minnestrone soup.

tsugajunkie: That's an adorable trellis!

Please let me know if your pole beans begin to sprout! I seem to be running into the exact same problem!! Haha.