Why are my green beans turning brown and dying

julie meeks 5/22/2011, 11:18 pm

I have planted green beans three times this spring and every batch grows really well, blooms starts to set fruit then dies. What could possibly be wrong. I am deep watering about every 4-5 days. I fertilize with fish emulsion every other week. Other things in the same box are doing fine. What am I doing wrong? Does anyone else have the same problem. I live in the desert but have my plants in raised beds using a mix of mel's mix and compost.

dianamarie03 5/22/2011, 11:49 pm

I might think too much nitrogen? I believe beans usually put nitrogen into the soil and maybe adding fertilizer that contains nitrogen is causing there to be too much. Maybe the other plants like the extra nitrogen but too much for the beans. I'm sure someone will be along to chime in...

shannon1 5/23/2011, 2:45 am

Why are my green beans turning brown and dying 396615

Julie I am a big fan of useing soil inoculants not everyone is but here is a little info on the subject.
Legumes grow best and produce more nitrogen if inoculated with a bacteria culture. Bacteria are the creatures actually responsible for fixing nitrogen on the roots of nitrogen-fixing plants. Especially helpful when planting a crop for the first time.
These cultures are plant specific, so be sure to choose the correct type. In other words you don't want to use soybean inoculant if your growing peas or green beans for example. It may help.

Unmutual 5/23/2011, 10:31 am

I planted beans with my corn, and they are doing the same thing(except not flowering). They start off great, throw up a bunch of leaves then turn brown and die. I thought that beans and corn had a good symbiotic relationship. I had no idea about the microbes actually doing the nitrogen fixing. Also it being new MM with (finally) 5 composts might explain the high nitrogen since the tomato plants started a little too late in the season are growing well.

I planted some more beans in year old MM, guess I'll find out in about a month if that is the problem.

julie meeks 5/23/2011, 1:42 pm

Thanks for the help. I don't think that the plants that I have planted around the beans played too much of a role in the beans dying. I say that since each plot of beans is planted with a different companion plant. This morning I went and pulled up any plant that had died and cleared the bed of any dead leaves also. I am hoping that if there is any disease I can nip it fast. I will also NOT be putting the remains in the compost pile. The heat here is a little much right now to be starting a new bed just for the beans so I will have to wait until September. I may try the inoculant at that time and see if it helps. Also will not replant in the same beds. Thanks again.

HPartin 5/23/2011, 2:56 pm

I can sympathize. My beans are looking pitiful. These are bush beans. Although they look sseemly good the taller ones were planted the same time as the shorter ones. What the heck?

[img]
[url=https://i.servimg.com/u/f21/16/31/82/30/102_0422.jpg[/img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f21/16/31/82/30/102_0422.jpg[/img][/url[/url]]

I also planted kentuch wonders which are suffering:

Why are my green beans turning brown and dying 102_0423

Why are my green beans turning brown and dying 102_0423

This is my first time with beans too. I haven't seen any insects on them that I can tell but I'm not really sure. Next time I will try occulent and see if things improve. I guess at this time it is a lost cause. Fish fertilizer didnt seem to make them happier.

Heidi

HPartin 5/23/2011, 2:59 pm

Hmm, I'm not sure what happened to the bush beans picture. Let's try again.

Why are my green beans turning brown and dying 102_0424

julie meeks 5/23/2011, 4:44 pm

Yes Heidi, my beans look very similar to yours. I probably have mine closer together than you do. They just get so spindly and pale looking them curl up and die. I have always been able to grow them while living in the mid-west but now that I am trying to grow here in Arizona I'm not having much luck. Check out my you-tube video and you can see my garden. Maggiemoo's little acre, there are two episodes.

**camprn** 5/23/2011, 6:23 pm

I'm not really sure, but my gut feeling is maybe a nutrient deficiency, mineral in nature,I suggest a Google search of images and see if you see anything similar. If the leaves are yellowing all over it may be a lack of nitrogen. If there are brown spots all over you may have a bacterial problem. I really cannot tell from the photos. Let us know what you find.

HPartin 5/23/2011, 6:34 pm

Julie,

Did you used to live in Wilmington, NC? I used to know a Julie Meeks there that moved west, though I don't remember where.

Heidi

duhh 5/24/2011, 9:07 pm

My bush beans are doing the same thing. I have replanted 3 times and tried another bed even! Had no problem with pease though. I got tired of trying on beans and figured I would research some more. Now I have melons coming up in their place. Let me know if you figure something out.
I used the pre made mels mix from gro-well. What did you use?

julie meeks 5/24/2011, 9:37 pm

I also used the pre-made mix but I added some compost and horse manure from the neighbor. All three times I tried the beans I put them in different mixtures of growing medium. It is pretty confusing. I hope to do better this fall in yet another bed using a lot of my own compost. I see you are in Glendale. Have you gardened in this desert for awhile? This is my first year of trying it here. I hope I can get the hang of it. Thanks for all your input

duhh 6/4/2011, 1:33 am

Nope, haven't gardened hardly at all. I started Feb 2010 with a 4x8 box, but the dogs ate it all by May!

Began again in Oct 2010 and have been going great ever since. A few things haven't grown the way I wanted, but most are doing way better than I had ever thought they would! I have now expanded to about 200 square feet with plans for more expansion come Feb 2012. I love it!

Lemonie 6/4/2011, 3:37 pm

Hmmm....sounds like this just isn't a good year for beans for anyone. I also planted late because of extreme spring weather (and dog issues) and we have been hit fast with high heat. Besides some slow growth- everything is doing fairly well. But my KY Wonder beans and my pumpkin plant are both yellowing and seem kind of stalled. Since they're in the same box- I went ahead and did a soil test on that box and found low nitrogen and high potassium. This was one of two boxes that didn't get any of my homemade compost because I ran short. Guess I'll be adding some natural fertilizers to see if this helps and hopefully they'll be strong enough to beat some of the heat.

So- what are your favorite natural fertilizers?

**camprn** 6/4/2011, 4:04 pm

Lemonie wrote:So- what are your favorite natural fertilizers?

Compost and manure tea What a Face

homeschool-sfg 4/14/2012, 11:53 pm

Check your potassium.

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