Fresh beans don't excite my taste buds quite to the level of fresh peas and tomatoes, but they aren't too far behind. This is our second try of plants and what to learn from it:- Beans, like peas, are self-pollinating.
- When the plant is healthy and happy, the beans grow fast and furious, so daily checks are necessary. Young, thin beans are tastier than old, hard ones.
- Pole beans grow better if there is something to grow up. We have bamboo poles and tie the plant with stretchy material as it grow up.
- Bush beans, like bush peas, apparently grow better in low light than pole varieties. We have only tried the pole types so far, but we've had some success.
- Beans fix nitrogen in the soil, which is good, and it makes beans a good choice
to follow other crops in the garden for crop rotation. Peas are similar here too. - As always, avoid over-watering. Our garden is in containers, which makes it easier to over water, especially if the soil does not drain well. Soil prep is a lot more important than I expected, so our soil is not as great as it will be someday when I figure it out. :)
Quality soil and good drainage are key to not having the leaves look like the photo. It may be root rot or some other fungus, but the plants are not looking healthy like they did last week. These plants may have to go the way that all things go soon so that we can treat the soil and start again. My advisor, aka Dad, suggested cooking the soil at about 200 F for a few hours to destroy any bugs, otherwise the continued use with just reinfect the new plants. Since we are entering the hotter weather months, maybe I can try the solar oven to heat the soil and avoid using the oven. That would be smelly and, yes, a bit dirty.
If anyone has specifics on what makes the leaves look like this, feel free to share.
We have bamboo poles as well, and some steel ones that look like they're designed to hold up barbed wire fences. The latter are much easier for beans, because although they're much harder to put into the soil, the beans can hold on to them on their own. They slip off the bamboo.
ReplyDeleteNeat! I didn't know they could stay up themselves, or I don't remember knowing it. We tie the plants on with old t-shirt material, but steel sounds good for permanent gardening. The weight might tip over the little containers now if it was too tall and heavy. These plants may not need anything to grow up much longer... Ah, the circle of life.
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