I believe that bush beans are 9 per SF, pole beans are 8 per SF, four on each side of a trellis. So spacing every 3 inches in any pot on both sides of a trellis should work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

Ah, I was wondering how to plant 8 pole beans in a square. That wasn't very clear in the book. Some of the pictures very clearly show the trellis outside the box at the back and some of the pictures show the trellis in the box, maybe in the middle.

I was thinking about putting my trellis at the back of my squares. Any disadvantage in that for beans? Would I still plant two rows of 4 (and if so what is the spacing)? If they only need 3 inches between them, maybe I could plant 4 rows of 4. Or is would that be crowding the trellis/dirt too much? Also, any general idea how many pole beans to plant per person?

all I can say is that last year we planted one pole bean plant. and I was harvesting 1-2 handfuls of beans per day, throughout the summer. this year I'm planting 6 plants and hopefully I'll be able to freeze some.
I'm trying not to overwhelm myself with too big of a garden (I'm a newbie still), so 12 pole bean plants seems like alot to me. but as I said, I'm new at this.

billy...if you are growing pole beans, you plant 8 to a square. But, these are in a straight line, not in 2 rows of 4...it wouldn't make sense to not put them right along your vertical tower in a row...your experience will probably be very similiar to granolamoms-you will be harvesting a ton of beans all summer long and even into the early part of the fall....

I know they're not beans, but I planted my pole beans the same way I planted peas. I planted two rows of 4 with 4 inch spacing between where the trellis goes down the middle. Here's a pic..

Here is a link that might be useful:

sinfo...pretty interesting! But, you can plant peas even closer together than what you have, leaving space in the front of each square to plant yet another variety of vegetable, like lettuce, carrots, etc.....

You mean don't leave 3-4 inches for the trellis to pass through between the rows? I wasn't sure what root system they needed. I won't dig them up now, but next year I'll consider moving them closer to the middle.

I did notice the space on the outside of the rows. I may plant some radishes there. Not sure. Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!