Bush Bean Recommendation

I planted Burpee stringless bush beans the end of April and I'm still not seeing anything other than yellow leaves. Can anyone recommend a bush bean variety that is hardy and guaranteed to grow? Also, any tips for keeping these plants healthy, such as sund and watering requirements, fertilizer, etc.?

Yellow foliage may mean you need to fertilize. How are the rest of the plants doing in the garden?

I planted 6 squares of bush beans. The green "Contender" beans are yellow and sickly and have been the whole time. The black beans are very green and the yellow beans look green, but lighter, were yellow, no longer are. These are all in the same box with the same soil and the same feeding. I have no idea what the differences are.

All beans are producing, however it does look like the green are producing fewer than the yellow. So may I just say, avoid Contender. That said the pack I have is also a couple of years old, but so are the others.

My favourite is Top Crop, but I couldn't find them this year -- the beans are all clustered at the top of the plant and are easy to pick. I planted Tendergreen and got a fairly decent crop. I was very pleased with the bean quality -- virtually stringless and tender even when I let them get too big. But it doesn't look like they are putting on a second crop like some bush beans do. Next year I'll plant twice as many. My all-time favourite bush bean both for fresh eating and shelling is Dragon's Tongue. They are a flat bean and never go tough until the pods start to dry. They cook up sort of chartreuse, so not a true green bean. But wow, are they good.

I planted 'Contender' from Ferry Morse, and they are vigorously producing beans. I had a few leaves go brown and spotty on me last month, but a few treatments with Neem oil seemed to fix it.

camprn wrote:Yellow foliage may mean you need to fertilize. How are the rest of the plants doing in the garden?

Can't say the rest of the garden looks that great. Here's a pic of the sick beans. Most of the leaves have fallen off already. Keep in mind these were planted the last week of April. Pretty sad, huh? I did fertilize with Garden Tone a few weeks ago:

Next to the beans is my pickling cucumber. One cuc did grow off this but I let it go too long and it turned bright yellow. Those leaves don't look too well either:

Now here's a puzzler...two peppers grown from seed at the same time but the one on the right was transplanted into the garden about 2 weeks before the one on the left. Could the plants on the right be getting too much shade cover from the fence??

The most misshapen strawberries I've EVER seen. Look more like Hershey kisses:

The "cherry" on top of my garden fail-tales is the enormous hornworm I found on one of my tomatoes this morning. I literally screamed out loud and then bashed the poor critter to death in my fright. I remember using cardboard tubes around the base of the stem in past years, so I'll try that.

I'd like to say that this year is another learning experience for me, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong. I suppose I could relocate the boxes if they need more sun, but does anyone have a clue before I go to the trouble? Any advice for eradicating hornworms?

My favorite is definitely Blue Coco and I got my bean seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The beans are a beautiful shade of purple and they taste wonderful!

Edit: Oops! Those are pole beans I haven't had much luck with any of the varieties of bush beans that I tried.

The Cat's Other Mother wrote:I planted 'Contender' from Ferry Morse, and they are vigorously producing beans. I had a few leaves go brown and spotty on me last month, but a few treatments with Neem oil seemed to fix it.

Then perhaps the fact that my Contender seeds were old affected their growth. Or any of 100 other variables. LOL. Good to know they can be a great bean.