Grow Your Own Magazine

Pls can anyone help?! I have about 8 bean plants in large pots and direct in soil in small garden; all seem to be healthy and flowering well, but once flowers have fallen and weeny bean is starting to grow, something seems to be eating them. Any ideas please?! They have been in flower for about 4 or 5weeks and are watered daily. I can't see any ants in the area, and they are protected with snail tape. I have seen a few small mauve/shiny beetles snooping around.....

I wouldn't mind but the cucumbers have failed this year (maybe due to the manure?) and the cat (mine!) keeps digging up the spinach and cress!

Thanks to anyone out there who can help!
Jenny

a lot of people seem to have been having problems with sparrows and their pea tops, maybe yours got bored with peas and moved onto beans

try this for your beetles BBC - Gardening - Advice - Non interactive Pest and Disease Identifier

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Hi Jen, like Lynda, I've heard that sparrows like nibbling pea & bean flowers so perhaps they're picking off the tiny beans too. Other than that I would suspect slugs or snails. I know you say you've got snail tape around the pots but if you have any plants with leaves overhanging the pots or leaves trailing down out of the pots or from other plants the little devils will climb or abseil their way onto your beans!

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I've seen a sparrow helping himself to the foliage on our beans today, they've also nibbled the lettuce and beetroot.

You don't say on your profile what part of the country you are from.Sometimes this can make a difference.

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Thanks to you all! I can't see the beans from my office window, but I do get a fair number of birds in the garden. I'll move one of the pots into the fruit frame and see if that makes a difference. I do check to make sure the leaves aren't on the ground, but as you say slugs and snails are certaily opportunists! I'll check to make sure the surrounding plants aren't offering a springboard, and will let you know if things improve under the netting!

I'm in Blackheath, South London, and will update my profile!

Thanks again
Jenny

Thanks for the link to check the beetles - will have a check through and see if I can spot them. J.

the birds have been pecking my lettuces today, so I have put them under the cloche. Little devils !!

It could be pea or bean weevil!

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You'll Never Walk Alone.

Doing Nothing is Hard Work Because you Never Know When You've Finished!!!!!