Monday, May 3, 2010

The Bean Leaves - The Picture Edition

Thank you for all of your advice about my bean leaf problems. I can't help but think it's some crazy insect sucking the life out of the leaves, but I can't find a single insect or insect egg around them. They're in a fresh, new bed and honestly, the same thing happened to my beans last year and I couldn't pinpoint a solution.

Here's what the leaves look like at first. You can see the one in the foreground and then the one on the left that's in the beginning stage of whatever-it-is.
Then, as it progresses, the entire leaf just goes limp like this:
It's just down right odd if I can say. Do the pictures help anyone any?
The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

13 comments:

  1. Do they die off completely? This happened to a few plants last year but I can not remember the end product.

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  2. You know, Johanna, my previous attempts at thrwarting it's spread has been to cut off the offending leaves. I've still gotten harvests, so I don't think the whole plant was killed, or maybe the harvest just came from those plants not affected, I really can't tell you. It would be interesting to leave these affected leaves and see what the harvest would be that way.

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  3. I would guess that it is a root problem that isn't allowing the plants to take up water and nutrients properly. If you can bring yourself to do it, pull one of the worst affected plants and take a look at the roots.

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  4. I'm game for anything, Michelle. I'll try and pull one tomorrow!

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  5. Ribbit, did you start these indoors? Since beans do not transplant well, maybe that has something to do with it?

    Hopefully they will recuperate.

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  6. hmm...that's pretty weird. The first pic looks like a little too much water, but the second is like not enough. I think michelle is right - it's got to be something affecting the roots. Maybe rootknot nematodes?

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  7. They were direct seeded, Thomas. EG, I'm going to pull one when I get home today. I'll have to post a picture of the roots as I wouldn't know what to look for there, either.

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  8. Have you tried to unfold the leaf and look inside? We had a similar problem once and it was some sort of catipillar laying eggs using the leaf as a caccoon of sorts, same thing happened to our raspberries last season.

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  9. I have, Mr. H. I've had that happen to other plants as well, but it doesn't seem to be the cause of this.

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  10. My pole beans started doing this last year, but I just left them alone and they ended up being just fine. We had a LOT of beans last year.

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  11. Looks like some sort of fungal disease. I'd say bean rust but it's missing the tale tell dark brown. Did you ever figure out what it was?

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  12. No, never have. I'm just going to let it be this year and see what happens. If it destroys everything it's still early enough to replant.

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  13. Ribbit - I know I'm waaaay late on the game here, but wanted to say that I've had that happen to plants before! Where half look underwatered and half look overwatered on the same plant! So frustrating. Hope you find an answer. I hate gardening mysteries sometimes... especially if a plant ends up dying and I never figured out the cause.

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