I have a question its about my wax and green bean plants. Every once in a while I find one of my plants bent over like it needs to be staked, but upon further inspection I see that the stem is almost broken and the inside is hollow. What can cause the main stem to go hollow? And then I notice the bean on it wouldn't be any good either anymore. What happend? Also some of my wax beans have had purple streaks on the yellow bean. Is this normal? Its my first year growing wax beans. And last year I didn't fair all that great with green beans. Thought this year id do better and not same mistakes as last year, seems I'm not, just making new ones I guess Ok so maybe they aren't all doing bad and I'm a bit of a drama queen. But I find about 1 a week I have to chuck! And id like to know what I'm doing wrong. my stem went hollow and plant colapsed ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden ) wax bean not looking so good. ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Mrs. Galeassi's Garden )
I have never grown beans in a container. this may be part of the problem...not enough rootmass to support the plant. You could have some insect damaging the plants stem causing the damage or it could be a fungus attacking the plant.
Check the bottom of your pots. If you see roots showing, it is as Carolyn said--not enough root space to grow properly. If that isn't it, cut open one of the hollow stems and see if there is a "bug" in it. If we are all still bumfuzzled, you might try spraying with Neem oil which is a fungicide and a pesticide. Read the label well before purchase to see if Neem might be useful to you.
Thanks ladies I think your right. Online it said I could grow them in pots. I thought they were big enough cause I didn't remember them growing to big last year but they were in the ground. I'm going to go get some of those black pots they use at nurseries in a bigger size. I am battling some blight or fungus on some. But that's something that's ccommon in this humidity. I may have to check out the neem oil. And I'm going to go look and see if I see the roots. Thanks for your help.
Where you have the pots also can be a problem. Too much shade,, they need full sun. That little fence can even make too much shade.
Oh I took the pic in the morning that's why its shady, I think they get a good amount of sun from the west in the afternoon. But I will move to infront of fence and see. Doesn't hurt to try Thanks
Mrs G, I have noticed that West sun is not nearly as helpful as East sun. I grew peppers a couple years ago on the West side of a row of apple trees thinking they would be getting plenty of mid-morning to all afternoon light....they struggled. They had plenty of afternoon light, but produced no or not many peppers. For the number of plants I had there it was a huge disappointment on the yield. So perhaps, they need more and earlier sun.
I'm going to do some experimenting today. I do have them I different sized pots some are smaller then others, I didn't notice any roots hanging out. But I found they have little cob webs underneath... hmmm wonder what's that about. The sun is brutal here in the afternoon, but maybe it is because they are right behind the fence where the other plants in that section are against the wall a few feet back. I'm going to move them to infront of the fence to start and google spider webs and see if find anything. Spiders are normally helpful I thought. Any ideas? I'm also going to make sure they are all in the biggest pots I have available too. Until I get bigger ones or they get better. Thanks Carolyn, MarlinGardener, and Mart.
Ok just came in and you won't believe I found a 3 bugs roaming in one pot. They were all very very tiny. One was red and I think it looked kinda like a mite, one was a little see through looking guy and one looked like the worlds smallest centipeade. I don't know but if I had to take a guess id say the red guy is my problem and maybe he's a spider mite, I've read somewhere about them. I don't remember what I read.
Spider mites can be removed with a good blast of water. If you think your bean plants aren't sturdy enough to stand up to a hose blast, you can cover the soil with plastic wrap and give the plant an upside-down dunking in a bucket of tepid water with some soap (not detergent--I use Ivory)swished in. It's a version of insecticidal soap as a bath. Just rinse off the soap mixture before eating the beans, otherwise you may blow bubbles!
