What is wrong with my Beans please?

Morning all - miserable, rainy and windy here :(

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong with my french beans, the leaves are turning brown/black from the bottom upwards and the tops look a bit like they are drying out? They are in a container with mpc, slow release fertiliser and perlite. I haven’t let them dry out, the water seems to run freely when I water them, but the compost is remaining cool to touch. No flowers on these at all.

They were bought as plug plants from Homebase and were doing fine. There were two containers with four plants in each, one container grew to the top of the supports then turned yellow overnight so they were pulled. I had high hopes for this one but now this has happened.

The weather has been a range of extremes over the last couple of weeks, burning sun, high temperatures, wind, rain and today its feeling a bit chilly too (only 15 degrees in the green house).

I haven’t had any success with peas or beans this year. All the peas got mildew, the sugarsnaps were still pickable as mangetout but didn’t last very long, the garden peas either didn’t form inside the pods or were hard as nails. Shall I pull these too and accept 2020 as a bad year for P&B’s do you think?

Thanks in advance.
Tink

 

Hi,

Well our runner beans were just in full swing when they were toppled and snapped off at the roots by the strong winds last weekend.

You first pic looks more like scorch marks , could be from sun or by water on the leaf during strong sun.

The second one, they look very healthy at the top, just a bit of blackness on the lower leaves, wonder if it could be mould or similar, possibly due to shade or cold wind ?
If the lower ones look too unheathly would just cut the odd ones off.

If we might suggest, Beans are one of the easiest seeds to grow, so you are paying a hefty premium for young plants.
What any type of Bean needs in a moisture retentive compost / soil, but your mpc with perlite is just creating a very free draining medium.

Typically for Beans when planted in soil you dig a trench and line it with good garden compost, old cardbord etc to help retain moisture.

To late now to change your existing compost, but when sunny and hot , if we ever get any more this year ! water at least twice a day.

 

Good evening @ricky101

Thank you so much for your reply and helpful and informative advice. I will snip off some of the worst leaves at the bottom in the morning and see if there is any way of altering the container to be more moisture retentive. I will bare in mind your advice and not abandon Beans/Peas next year as I had threatened to do after all my failures this year, but get the soil/compost conditions sorted.

Sorry about your beans, hope you don’t have too many plants affected by this unseasonable weather we are having.

Thanks again for your reply.
Regards
Tink

 

Hi,

Don't think we would try to change the compost now, more likey to disturb and upset the roots.
Just plenty of water when hot; hopefully soon as that should help them form some flower buds.

As you can see on the web, folk even grow runner beans in pots, generally using mpc with loam or garden soil, but basically anything that holds moisture without waterlogging the plants.

We have only grown beans in the soil, so a lot easier to keep them moist.
You can read about the old fashioned Trench method of soil preparation here - though easy enough to apply to a large deep pot or planter etc.
Runner beans

 

Hi @Tinkerbelle61 I agree with @ricky101 - I've had tons of runner beans - until I stopped picking them enough (couldn't keep up!) and they in response stopped flowering so freely . I start them in paper cups or pots and plant out when they look like triffids. My dad always used to line the trench for beans with old newspapers (on sandy soil it was necessary). How big are your containers? Certainly the changeable weather would probably have had more impact if your plants had a more limited root run - a couple of weeks ago it was frazzling and could well have damaged the leaves. How big are the plants? The growth looks a bit sparse - I would expect by now that it would be a huge mass of leaves.
Don't give up though - they are definitely worth persisting with. Next year will be better!

 

Why not give a try to growing from seed. A part pkt of French dwarf beans from our GC gave me 30 plant's .I will save remaining
beans for next year.
You've no need to pay a lot ,I think mine were 'country value ' and only a pound.
If possible grow in the ground or put in a large container. But I wouldn't add pearl light.
Sow and keep watered but not over wet.

 

Good morning @ricky101 @CarolineL and @Purple Streaks

Another blowy day here!

Thank you all for your replies and advice. My partner made the containers for me. Everything is a bit limited as we don’t have any open ground to plant in with three Labrador dogs “owning” our small back garden, so containers on wheels is our solution - until we get a chance of moving house with a bigger garden (hopefully sometime in the next 12 months).

The containers are 25” long, 18” wide and 17” deep with four plants in. They have green garden mess along the centre that I planted two plants either side of, the mess is up 45”, the plant growth has gone way past this and the tips are blowing around unsupported all over the place! I can see now that I’ve done it all wrong this year but will heed all your advice for next year and if we haven’t been able to move, I’ll get some topsoil to use, definitely no perlite! Can’t use soil from the front garden, it is all bamboo plants growing wild covering the length and height of six fence panels - nothing else will grow there.

Thanks again for all you help.
Have a good day.
Tink

 

Ps. Meant to say they are Climbing French Bean, Blue Lake.

 

Nice dog! That looks too shallow for beans... I grow them in a half barrel to give the roots a fair depth.
I used half top soil and half garden compost. Then tomato feed every couple of weeks once the pods have set.
I agree that growing beans from seed is the best (and fun) method.
But above all, you can have lots of choice with which variety you grow.
It's a well made container though and it would probably do well with a couple of ridge cucumbers in it next year..
Edit)- The photo is a bit deceiving, 17" depth is reasonable i guess for french beans.

 

Hi,

Hard to judge the height of yours, but seems they can grow to 1.8m high so you probably need to add some sticks or canes ( or bamboo stalks!) for them to continue to climb up.

Use a balancd feed once a week and when flowers and the little pods appear change over to tomoto feed.

Cleary the bigger the pot the better they will be, but your planter is a fair size and depth, so do keep them growing, hopefully the weather will improve as all beans like warm sunny days and water.

 

OH NO... there was a typo in there it’s not 17” it’s 7” deep, so you are right, not a deceiving photo, just fat fingers early in the morning (had to do two drops to the train station this morning, one at 5.30am and the other at 7am)! No wonder they are not happy, I haven’t got anything right with them. I will preserve and add some poles, feed and water and maybe top up the container with more mpc. I might have something to show you if the sun comes out and the weather is kind.

Will definitely take all the advice to grow from seed next year.

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies and kind support.
Tink
ps @Jymi riddler Thanks, that’s Tiggi, she is nearly three years old and was waiting for her two hour (6 mile) daily walk.

 

And there was me thinking my eyes had deceived me lol.
Well done Tink, and i hope Tiggi enjoys her walk

 

just thinking about your beans but the others might disagree with me If we have an Indian summer you may still Have some late beans can you add by some depth to your containers by usinG something at the sides.top up with soil / compost whatever.maybe remove the bottom leaves that will be buried.
if you get flowers put a flowering plant close by .this will attract insects to pollinate your beans.you could even try planting the odd bush type bean along side of the plants.
if you need a few I can post you some to try.either this year or next.

what do others think?

 

Fingers crossed for an Indian summer!