Topic: yellow leaves on runner beans

[carosanto]

 :(  Hi - I'm Caro and I'm new today.  Looking forward to a long and fruitful (!) association with this forum.  Please help if you can.  I recently moved from Lincs where I grew stupendous crops of string and runner beans) no trouble to Cornwall (where my healthy young plants went yellow once planted out, and the leaves are sparce and the whole plant spindly).

Everyone here has a different answerto this problem, but the concensus is - "it's a deficiency", but no-one knows what of!

Any ideas out there?  The beans are planted over a manured trench, with lots and lots of damp shreded paper put at the bottom.

Hoping you can help out there.  Caro

[Duke Ellington]

Hi and welcome to the forum !! I am new myself but I have had a similar problem with runner beans this year! and many others on our allotments have been having the same problem with yellow leaves on runner beans. I planted my seeds at home in tubes made from newspaper and loo rolls~I was told that as the newspaper breaks down it robs the soil of nitrogen so this might have affected my beans initially. Another gardener mentioned that the weather had been cold during the night when most people planted them out a few weeks ago.
My beans were in a terrible state to begin with ~~they wouldn't even climb :o but on the advice of others I gave them a feed with miracle grow and they have green'd up nicely ~they are climbing. Also along with the feed I was giving them more water which i think helped. You can of course use an organic alternative to miracle grow!

Duke

ps I had the same problem with butternut squash ~I gave them a feed two weeks ago and they are starting to green up now  ;D

[debster]

ive had similar problems and i am wondering if it is weather related as i have done exactly the same as last year when the crop was prolific ive put it down to the colder nights

[Lost-The-Plot]

We have exactly the same problem with our runner beans this year, as have a few others at the allotmants. We started ours off in paper pots and loo tubes.

[manicscousers]

hiya, carosanto welcome to the site  ;D
we give everything a dose of our homemade nettle and comfrey tea, greens it all up, some people use seaweed feed, that has nutrients in they might need  :)

[carosanto]

Thanks for all the yellow runner beans tips.  I'm off to get some feed, but note that the cold nights may have had an input here.  I have squash and outdoor cucs which are also suffering a bit and as my lottie is 600 ft up o the side of a windy Cornish hill, the weather could well be playing a part here.

Bye y'all ;)

[pamsdish]

hi all
i have the same problem and i was told to give them a teaspoon of epsom in a watering can,it helped a bit but i have them in a windy spot and i think its wind burn as i seem to be getting lots of flowers

[Hyacinth]

Same prob for me in Birmingham, and my dwarf beans aren't looking any better.  :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine are only just being planted out. I don't grow runners, just climbing Frenchies and Trail of Tears beans. They had a bit of a shock when they came out of the mini-greenhouse, but they're growing again, hopefully sufficiently hardened off to avoid slug damage, and looking healthy.

[windygale]

hi carosanto, welcome to the site, have you thought that it could be a lack of magnesium
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/beans.htm,
try tomatoe feed and see if it helps
windy ;) ;)

[saddad]

Welcome to the site Carosanto... I'd put it down to the unseasonal cold winds.. especially 600' up on a windy hillside...  ;D

[Suzanne]

Agree, cold nights and chilly winds seem to have affected most of the warmth loving crops. I have found as have others that a good feed helps - I use seaweed extract whilst I await for my comfrey leaves to rot down a bit - this process also a bit slower than last year!

[star]

Hello and welcome Carosanto :D, Hopefully next time to take a look at them beans they may be a bit greener, its not a great year for them so far :(

[tonybloke]

welcome to the site. If anyone else near to you has some runner beans growing, take (with permission) a couple of handfuls of soil from around their plants and sprinkle it around yours.This will innoculate the soil with the necessary bacterium. Rgds, Tony ;)

[carosanto]

Well I've had even more posts on the yellow leafed runner bean crisis.  Have given them a good eed, and going up this am hoping to see good things, as haven't been now for two days.  Weather here in Cornwall has been a bit changeable, still with cold nights (unusual for here), but last night definitely a whiff of the warm.  Again thanks so much for all your input. 

[organicandy]

Hi, its down to the warm winds we've had recently, and maybee a deficiency of nitrogen, give them a feed of miracle grow or bonemeal and they come back OK

[Poppy Mole]

Hello stumbled on this site as i was looking for the reason why my runners are very pale & skinny - will now give the miracle grow a chance I think - but will this also work on my sweet peas which look much the same?
As you may gather I'm not very good at this gardening lark - my husband used to do it all.

[manicscousers]

hiya, poppy mole, welcome to the site,
don't think the weather's helping our beans at all  :)

[sawfish]

I reckon its the cold, I have it on my beans, squash and courgettes too.