French bean rescue ideas!

[WitchypooNo2]

Long story short - we thought we were moving to a restaurant with a field so we bought shed loads of seeds to use as our fist drop for the "From the garden" menu. It all fell through so we have stuck stuff in the allotment at the last minute and the beans are not happy. We have not rotated where they are so are in the same place as last year. We did rotivate with manure but they are looking soooooooo sorry for themselves. yet the ones out front which we put in pots to be portable are fine and thriving. So the question is. What can I do to cheer up my poorly beans?

DH suggested making a liquid out of chicken manure and pooring it on the base of the plant, or will my evil smelling comfry do the trick?

any suggestions welcome as usually we have FAB beans and this year they just look well as opposed to

[ina]

Don't put any more Nitrogen fertiliser on them - beans create their own. If you had put a lot of manure in already, that might actually be the reason why they aren't doing well!

Apart from that, I can't think of anything - no pests involved, or diseases? No lack of water?

[WitchypooNo2]

so no to manure!

No disease that I can see and no pests as yet. they have been watered evey night but just generally look very sad!!

Thanks for the advice

Elixx

[Wombat]

Yeah, What Ina said!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

Funny, my French beans look completely pathetic too. They were sown directly in the ground. I think I will start again in pots.

[Hillbilly]

Hiya

peas and Beans don't actually need much water according to Grown Your Own mag - I didnt know that either..happily watering mine everynight....

"Legumes are best kept on the dry side. Too much water on young plants will cause them to produce more and bigger leaves at the expense of the flowers and subsequent crops. They need watering when transplanted outside but after that should only be watered if they shows signs of wilting. then once the plants are in flower and the pods are forming, give them another good watering. Aim for 6 litres per metre, twice a week, to the base of the plant" - Caroline Foley (Author of Practical Allotment and other allotment books)

Maybe they're on the wet side?

[Hillbilly]

In fact i found the mag online!!! (yay! saves me money!)

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/garden ... 6/june.php tells you everything you need to know about beans inc problems

[Batfink]

Our French beans are pretty much buggered. They started off all nice and strong and healthy looking, but the initial leaves turned brown and died off as the next pair opened up. For every new couple of leaves which opened, the previous pair have turned light brown, withered up and died.

Now, out of the the 10 plants we had, we have two which look relatively healthy, and the rest are just sorry looking brown stems.

I had a browse through a couple of pest books and the only thing we have found is something called "Halo blight", but I'm not convinced that this is the problem... I'll take a photo later to share and see if you folk have any ideas.

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmmm I have one which is just a sorry looking brown stem. It has never developed any leaves. Given they were planted about a month ago they ought to be a lot bigger than a couple of inches high they are now. Off to buy more seeds I reckon. Last year they did seem to have some kind of brown staining of the leaves too as I recall.

[shiney]

Mine are looking ok, they looked a bit sorry for themselves in the intense heat but have perked up.

My ancient runner bean seeds are thriving. They were given to me by my grandad and he died two years ago. I thought I 'd plant them anyway and they are storming along.

[WitchypooNo2]

yup the heat seems to have perked ours up too. I think hte inital problem may have been that they becam pot bound as we were really late planting them out due to the move.

The ones out the front of the house (yesa our front garden also has veg ) are racing ahead. but the others are finally showing signs of life!!!!

Perhaps it is a bad year for french beans?

[hedgewizard]

my trail of tears variety are doing ok but they had a really slow start. It's been a strange year.