Stunted and diseased French beans (climbing)

Every year I grow 3 rows of climbing beans - Runner, Blue Lake and Cobra, the latter two being French beans. This year, the Runner and Blue Lake are doing fine, but the Cobra (which are normally the earliest and most vigorous) sudddenly stopped growing upwards when they got about 1 - 2ft up the sticks, then, when some blossom set and beans emerged, the beans are all distorted and misshapen with little lesions on them. They do however still taste fine when cooked. Anyone else had this problem?

 

Any chance it could be weedkiller contamination, maybe spray drift.

 

Probably not because the Cobra row is in the middle between the other two which are fine. My garden is all organic, we do we have a boundary with a farmer's wheat field but I don't think they use glyphosate in their growing process for wheat these days.

 

My Cobra have performed well this year but I've had plenty of shrivelled leaves - sun and wind and not as well watered as usual. One or 2 of them are now showing signs of "fattening" at one end but remain smooth with no marking. I only grew 5 plants in a large dustbin and they are really coming to the end now.

 

Glysophate would kill wheat, been no need to ripen crops this year!
More likely something else, maybe 2-4 D or a bean virus of some kind, bean yellow mosaic virus possibly, spread by aphids.
Are there any other signs apart from the actual bean pods ?
Were the seeds homesaved, direct sown , grown elsewhere , perhaps not same as other beans or all in exact same conditions ?
Contact with treated lawn cuttings, horse manure, compost all possibilities , is it all the beans in the row?

 

I've never heard of 2-4 D but I looked it up and it's a selective (broadleaf) herbicide so that's given me something to think about, but if it is that why hasn't it affected the other beans? Then I wondered if it could also be implicated in the problem I have with wilting broccoli that you also commented on. Next to the broccoli bed I have some Mange Tout peas (almost over now) which have died back in an odd way this year (see photo) - it's these three crops which are closest to the boundary with the cornfield. Also, my two greenhouses are on that side of the garden - every year I have a major problem with my young pepper plants crinkling their leaves up which I've always put down to greenfly attack even though there aren't many greenfly on them. This year, even my tomato plant leaves are looking a bit odd, similar to how they look if I've forgotten to water them, although they seem to be cropping ok. Next I'm going to message the farmer and ask him to let me know what products he's been using and when.
The actual leaves on the Cobra beans look fairly normal, but the plants stopped growing any further up the poles at 1ft - 2ft high. The seeds for Cobra and Blue lake were 'new' seeds from packets, and runner beans are home-saved. All started in pots in the greenhouse at the same time using the same garden centre compost, and any compost used in the soil was from my own compost heap.

 

Certainly suggests that they've received a 'whiff' of something nasty . Hopefully you can have a mutual understanding with your neighbour, perhaps notice of the spray days, although one must appreciate from his pov that suitable conditions are limited and that the opportunity window is often small. Still days often have slight breeze, which is all it takes for drift. Modern sprayers can be programmed to shut on/off with great accuracy especially with satalite plotting. Be interested in any developments

 

So I emailed the farmer, I'd love to know what readers make of it!

Hi ****, I've been having more problematical symptoms than usual this year with beans and brassica crops in my garden, and also with pepper plants and tomatoes in my two greenhouses. The latest problem is with climbing French beans, the plants suddenly stopped going up the poles about a month ago, and now the beans I'm picking are strangely distorted and have little lesions on them.

I've discussed this with various gardeners on internet gardening forums, and the main suggestion is that this could be a result of crop spray drift (I explained that one side of my garden borders a farmer's wheatfield), specifically from broad-leaf herbicides. Then it occurred to me that all the other problems I'm having involve vegetable crops either in the greenhouses or grown outside on that side of our garden which borders your field, and indeed I do remember one instance about a month ago when I was in the garden and your sprayer went by and the breeze from the northeast carried a residue across our garden, I had to quickly go indoors and shut all the doors and windows.

I'd like to try to establish the cause of these issues before the 2026 growing season, so could you please help me by letting me know what products have been used on your crop this year and on what dates? Also, could you please let me know in future by email each time you are planning to spray that field so I can monitor the situation carefully and let you know if the wind conditions are unsuitable? Many thanks, ****.


Dear ****

I think this is highly unlikely to be chemical damage.

I am a gardener myself and it has been an extremely difficult season due to the lack of rain and the high temperatures. We have only had 150mm of rainfall since January ( half our usual rainfall!) The lesions you are seeing on your plants are classic drought stress! The difficulty in pollination may also result from the tough time bees are having. My wife has lost two hives this year to wasps which have thrived in these conditions!!!!

Any rainfall or even hose pipe water is quickly evaporated or lost into the soil - which is extremely dry.

This has made growing anything, including my crops in the field very hard! Have you noticed how may trees are dying in the countryside? A shocking result of our climate!!!!

You have to say after three such years in the last ten that climate change is becoming a reality which none of us can avoid!!!!

The era of cheap food may be prolonged by buying from abroad in the short term (making it some elses’ problem!) but in the longer term we are all in trouble!!!

It is interesting that immediately spray chemicals are blamed as they are tested by the pesticide directorate to an extreme degree. We now know exactly what happens to such chemicals in soil, air and water. There are more hazardous chemicals in your loo bleach and washing up liquid.

No broad leaved herbicides were applied near your garden this spring. It is likely that the hedge and trees on our shared border have sucked up any moisture available. Your garden also has many established trees in it which have probably done likewise.

If we do not use such chemicals yields will collapse further - the world cannot afford to feed itself organically- there are just too many of us!!!!

 

I'm impressed that your farmer neighbour took the time to reply in such detail. Much of what he says is sensible re the extreme drought conditions . No knowledge of chemicals/pesticides so can't comment on that part.
Hope you manage to sort it out and remain on good terms with your neighbour