Tweet
Hi everyone,
I got an allotment back in May this year and most things are going well and I'm having fun learning as I go. However, I am really struggling with my climbing beans, peas and broad beans. I've googled for information on the problems but its really not clear what's happened to them.
Most of my broad bean plants, the leaves haven't unfurled properly and the flowers look chewed. I was worried it was blackfly, and have sprayed them regularly and pinched out the growing tips, to no avail. I have had some broad beans from the plants, but even then, a lot of the pods look malformed and I don't think I'm getting the crop I should, if they were healthy plants. My broad beans are in two different beds next to each other and both lots are impacted by the same thing.
Then in one of the broad bean beds, I've got my climbing beans and peas. I grew borlotti beans, French bean (purple cascade) and climbing pea (aldermans). I grew them in root trainers and they looked so healthy before I planted them out. Basically as soon as I planted them out, they just seemed to go down hill. The next sets of leaves were tiny and crumpled-looking. The purple cascade look like the top third have no leaves whatsoever. They took ages to grow up the beans netting and look a bit pathetic now. I got a small amount of purple cascade beans when I got back from a weeks holiday, but I think that's it for the year. And I'm sure they should be carrying on and producing a lot more. I also have some dwarf French beans (Mont D'Or) in the same bed and they are cropping like crazy. Oh and as for my climbing peas, I lost quite a few plants and then few that are left aren't really producing much. I think I've had 4 pods from about 4 plants so far.
My googling made me think it might be aphids, but I've hunted on the plants and can't see any.
I'd be grateful for any advice. I don't have any pics at the moment, but could post some later, if this would be helpful. I realise that it's too late to resolve this year, but I'd love to understand how to avoid this for next year.
Thanks in advance, LF
I got an allotment back in May this year and most things are going well and I'm having fun learning as I go. However, I am really struggling with my climbing beans, peas and broad beans. I've googled for information on the problems but its really not clear what's happened to them.
Most of my broad bean plants, the leaves haven't unfurled properly and the flowers look chewed. I was worried it was blackfly, and have sprayed them regularly and pinched out the growing tips, to no avail. I have had some broad beans from the plants, but even then, a lot of the pods look malformed and I don't think I'm getting the crop I should, if they were healthy plants. My broad beans are in two different beds next to each other and both lots are impacted by the same thing.
Then in one of the broad bean beds, I've got my climbing beans and peas. I grew borlotti beans, French bean (purple cascade) and climbing pea (aldermans). I grew them in root trainers and they looked so healthy before I planted them out. Basically as soon as I planted them out, they just seemed to go down hill. The next sets of leaves were tiny and crumpled-looking. The purple cascade look like the top third have no leaves whatsoever. They took ages to grow up the beans netting and look a bit pathetic now. I got a small amount of purple cascade beans when I got back from a weeks holiday, but I think that's it for the year. And I'm sure they should be carrying on and producing a lot more. I also have some dwarf French beans (Mont D'Or) in the same bed and they are cropping like crazy. Oh and as for my climbing peas, I lost quite a few plants and then few that are left aren't really producing much. I think I've had 4 pods from about 4 plants so far.
My googling made me think it might be aphids, but I've hunted on the plants and can't see any.
I'd be grateful for any advice. I don't have any pics at the moment, but could post some later, if this would be helpful. I realise that it's too late to resolve this year, but I'd love to understand how to avoid this for next year.
Thanks in advance, LF
Comment