Sunflowers are heavy feeders, which tend to out compete beans. When water or nutrients are scarce, the sunflower is going to get whatever is available. They are very competitive.

"Sunflowers are heavy feeders, which tend to out compete beans."

Can I assume then, if a gardener keep the sunflowers and beans, watered and fertilized, they could grow good together?

thanks,
Dean

Good is relative , Dean. If you have rich soil with plenty of water, yes they will grow together. Be warned , tho, that sunflowers don't have a strong base. Expect the beans to pull them down in the first thunderstorm.

That makes sense. I guess the compost has kept them both fairly happy, lord known we have had plenty of rain. I'll separate them a bit more in the future. I agree I'd not count on the flowers as the beans main support but a few tendrills haven't caused any problem. The main reason the to crops ended out near each other is because of both of their hights (these sunflowers are ~6') and my attempt to max production while not shading other crops.