Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Bean Leaves

I left the camera at my mother's last night, so I can't get a picture, but my bean leaves are darkening and curling in (more like wasting away) from the edges towards the center until the entire leaf is utterly lifeless and limp. Last year I tried to thwart its spread by cutting off the affected leaves, but it didn't slow the progress. I do have aphids that have attacked the eggplants in the bed next to them, but I haven't seen any of them on the beans.

Any idea what it is/how to stop it? I want beans.

Any good aphid advice, either? Hand squishing them is getting tedious, but the insecticidal soap I sprayed on them yesterday only seemed to act as a multiplying catalyst.

12 comments:

  1. Are the beans planted in the he same area as last year? Does the darkening in the leaves occur before curling? I am sure once you have photos it will be easier to help identify the problem.

    Do you have a different area where you can seed more beans just in case these don't recover?

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  2. hmm....poor drainage will cause leaves to do that, especially after alot of rainfall. That's what my zucchini usually does after being flooded. I don't have a solution for the aphids, because they only cause minimal damage in my garden.

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  3. I usually hit em' hard with a hose spray, they will fall off, then spray the plant in hopes that will deter them from jumping back on. It works well with my perennials, but I imagine they can't withstand more forceful spray than the veggies!

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  4. I only had minimal aphids last year, but this year they seem to be more of a problem.

    The beans are in a new bed with new soil lined with cardboard, so the drainage may not be completely up to snuff, I conceed....I think the curling happens along with the darkening, not one before the other, but if it has to be, then the curling happens first. Once I get the broccoli out, I'll plant more beans there.

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  5. It sounds like you may have a bacterial wilt. I did a google and the closest thing I can find was this:

    http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/brief/2008/color/

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  6. THanks for looking, KItsapfg,but it's a bit different from that as the center of the leaves are fine, that is until the curling gets there. I got my camera back, so I'll see if I can go out there tonight and get some pictures.

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  7. Last year aphids were in love with my peas. I would just blast them off with water from a spray bottle. They didn't really cause too much trouble. We'll see what happens this year.

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  8. Darn, the spray did not work...

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  9. Nope. Only served to make more of them. I think it was a love potion.

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  10. I got rid of my aphids by buying a container of ladybugs at our local nursery. You put them on the plants at night and by morning all the aphids are munched up! Plus, the ladybugs sometimes lay eggs before they fly away, so your veggies stay protected when the next flock of aphids comes in ;)

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  11. Aw, man. That's rough. Could it be too cold for them? Or some kind of weird virus. Plants can break yur heart.

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  12. You could look at this plant pathology site and see if you can find it. Beware, the poor sick plants look really yukky.

    http://plantpathology.uark.edu/3213.htm

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