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Discoloured french beans

marihdaviesmarihdavies Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
This is my first year gardening and one of the veg I am growing is Tendergreen dwarf french beans. Half of the beans are coming through lovely and green, whilst the other half have grey lines/ mottling on the skin. It is only skin deep, and doesn't seem to effect the taste, but I can't find anything online as to why this is happening.
Any ideas?





Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Some beans do have that mottled blue/grey/purplish colouring ... its perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.  Some varieties have a reddish blotching.

    It usually disappears when they’re cooked 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Womble54Womble54 Posts: 348
    Do your plants have much black fly? I find the beans with black fly on the stems get discoloured and misshapen.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I’ve had French beans with mottled pods, the other one in your photo is a runner bean, so not the same plant and can’t really be compared to each other. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • marihdaviesmarihdavies Posts: 4
    Womble54 said:
    Do your plants have much black fly? I find the beans with black fly on the stems get discoloured and misshapen.
    I seem to have been really lucky with pests this year and haven’t noticed black fly, but will keep me eye out. Thanks for the tip. 
  • marihdaviesmarihdavies Posts: 4
    Lyn said:
    I’ve had French beans with mottled pods, the other one in your photo is a runner bean, so not the same plant and can’t really be compared to each other. 
    Thanks Lyn, definitely no runner beans in my garden. These are all from the same packet and picked from the same plants, but good to know others have had this issue and it’s nothing to worry about. 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Yes I can see now I’ve blown the photo up, begs pardon, in that case the speckled ones have a problem. The green ones look good though, I think they’ll all cook up well enough. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    looks like there was a cross pollination issue at the seed grower to me, just looks like a different variety rather than any pest or disease issue.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I think you have it @Skandi ... I’ve had many crops which have had markings on some but not all beans. When looking forward carefully at them I’ve been able to see that they come from separate plants. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • marihdaviesmarihdavies Posts: 4
    Skandi said:
    looks like there was a cross pollination issue at the seed grower to me, just looks like a different variety rather than any pest or disease issue.
    That’s a really interesting point, you could be right Skandi. The plants all look the same and it’s hard to tell which beans are coming from which plants as they are growing close together, but I had a wee check and think the discoloured beans are from the same parent. Thanks! 
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