Yellowing bean plants

Hi all,

We've been trying to grow beans (French and borlotti), but have had some problems. They germinated very well, and we planted them all out into our plot (which had been overgrown with very old grass beforehand). The French beans died off one by one, after wilting and turning slowly yellow. When I dug 'em up, the roots were very small.

One of the borlotti plants is now looking a bit yeller, so I'm worried they'll succumb to the same fate as the Frenchies. Although I found a leatherjacket (which like eating roots!) on the surface of the soil about a week ago, I haven't seen any since.

Does anyone have any advice? If the problem's not leatherjackets, what could it be? Or is the problem something more simple, like the recent lack of sunshine, or not getting enough nutrients from the soil - do beans need feeding, in general?

I'll maybe post a picture tomorrow of the yellowing plant.

paddy

 

What`s your soil like, Paddy? Post the pic anyway.

 

Actually, my first crop have been yellowing around the lower leaves and I was concerned because I have fed them but I was wondering if we have just had too much water and not enough sun.. I am hoping that maybe with a bit of sun tomorrow they may be ok. They are over 6ft tall but they are not the healthy rich green and robust as my previous years beans have been. Other years I have used my own compost heap, this year I used bags of compost. I have however fed them good liquinure and yesterday some tomorite.

 

Hello!

This is the pic of my yellowing borlotti plant, with a couple of the others around it for comparison:

I tried to insert the pic into this post but it isn't working so here is a url with the pic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86587330@N00/2560846746/

In answer to your question, I'm not sure what the soil is like in terms of acidity etc, but when we dug up the grass and turned the soil over, it seemed okay and had plenty of worms. We added a couple of 100l bags of organic compost and a couple of 50l bags of manure, plus we bought some concentrated manure pellets which we have been sprinkling over and digging in from time to time. (Our plot is 15 by 5 feet.) Do we need more food for the plants, do you think?

I forgot to add that also, all of our little courgette and squash plants went yellow and limp and died too!

By the way, what are liquinure and tomorite?? We are clueless, this is our first year of veg growing! :D

Paddy

 

Liquinure is a mix of horse manure put into a tub and watered to give a liquid feed. Tomorite is a feed that you add to water to feed the likes of beans and tomatoes. I haven't looked at your pic yet - will go and do that now.

 

I don't like the look of that middle one - I think it is past saving. The other two don't look too bad. I am not sure what has caused it. Maybe like mine, I think, too much rain! Not enough sun.

 

If that were the case, Moyra, all 3 plants would be affected. You say your courgette and squashes went the same way? I think it could be overwatering. Also, Paddy, don`t worry about Liquinure and Tomorite, just yet. With the way you have prepared the ground you shouldn`t have to worry about feeding for a little while.:thumb:

 

Yes, you are right Dai. I have fed my beans a good feed of Tomorite and hey presto they are back to a healthy green again and have their first blooms on them.