What to do about my shrivelled beans?
Shoxt3r
Posts: 196
Hi there,
So for a few weeks the french beans we had going were growing pretty well and producing a lot ( we managed to completely fill a Pyrex dish and a small bowl with just the first crop!).
However since then the beans have really struggled to produce and have either really shrivelled up or there's only been a handful of good ones.
We've had a lot of rainfall lately as I'm sure you all have but unsure if that has caused the issue or whether it's something else. The plants are within their own container and despite a bit of encroachment from the neighbouring tomato plant have been doing ok until very recently.
The leaves are very yellow in places and as said most beans are drying out and turning yellow before they've really got going. There is still new, healthy-looking growth in places with new buds which look promising but otherwise it's not looking a very healthy plant.
We've tried looking elsewhere for advice but there doesn't seem to be anything covered.
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Andrew
Posts
You don't say if your beans were earlies or not. My black French beans were earlies and have now finished. My green French beans have been heavy cropping too but are now slowing down. Like me you appear to have only a few plants so cropping slows quite fast in the end. To maximise my crop I grow four plants each in two tubs on teepees joined together across the top about three feet apart. It does help at the end to cropping. The yellow beans appear to be failing before big enough to pick and that could be because of the wet weather. I might add that growing against a fence does not allow enough air / sun onto plants so next year try in the middle of the garden in a sunny spot. Hope this helps.
If theyre in a container of ordinary
multiipurpose compost they'll need plenty of additional fertiluser ... Have they been regularly fed?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure if they're earlies, they were starting to produce around mid-June which does seem a bit earlier than last year. We have 3-4 plants maximum in the tub I think.
I moved the container away from the fence about 3 weeks ago as the tomatoes were getting tangled in them and since then they seem to have dropped off but maybe that's just coincidence and they were going to do this anyway.
We've been feeding them every couple of weeks or so - I don't remember last year's needing a lot of feeding though and they produced right through the season.
Is there any hope to reviving the plants or is it done for?
And they've been watered regularly?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It does look as though you are leaving them until they are too old before you harvest them. The main delight of grow-your-own is harvesting the products at their peak, which is far earlier than would be found in a shop.
It looks as though your beans have just run out of steam. No plant will go on producing for weeks on end.; especially if you don't feed them well.
We've watered as needed though we've had some unusual downpours in the past few weeks which may have unsettled them and so haven't seen the need to water unless there is no rain each day.
Some new buds are still visible and a few tiny beans are there so maybe it will make a comeback. I've given it a feed this evening and will make sure to feed every few days now so we shall see.
Is there a need to take any dried, yellow leaves off?
I've done this with our tomatoes and that seems to have really help those at least (we've got nearly 50 toms already this season!).
Container grown plants often need watering, even if it's been raining ... Leaves etc prevent most of the rain getting into the container.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Glad to hear you are perservering but the season for beans is coming to an end. Just take this year's growing season as a learning one as the weather has made a difference. The other posters have good points so take them and run with them next year hopefully we will have bumper crops to report.?