Plenty of Flowers But no Beans

[so lucky]

The Fortex pole beans I planted are doing ....fair....but my one pole full of Blue Lake Pole beans are flowering like crazy, have been for a month, but not a single bean. There are about 3 actual seeds planted around the pole, and they have good looking foliage, but just not making beans. I know the hot weather we have had could stop pollination, but we had lot of normal weather before this. Besides the possibility of too much nitrogen, anything else you can think of?

 

[PhilaGardener]

My Blue Lake Pole beans haven't been blooming quite that long, but I noticed today that they don't have many pods either.

I did pick a big bowl of Fortex today (and dug my potatoes)!

 

[flowerbug]

yes, the heat can have something to do with it. also the variety of bean. some seem more heat tolerant than others, and others are quite a bit more finicky about trace nutrients. i have some right now that show some deficiency problems but they are growing next to others in that exact same soil that are doing just fine.

that said, i have tons of beans here and it has been into the mid-90sF, but recently it has cooled off and even more beans are coming along.

if your heat has been into the 100sF that would likely be most of the reason IMO.

beans are self-fertile, they should just do their own thing.

one thing you can check is to see if the young beans have been falling off (aborted) or not forming at all. the aborted beans would be because of plant stress or lack of water or trace nutrients. but if you have other plants doing ok and putting on beans then it would be a sensitivity of that variety.

one of the reasons i grow so many beans is to find varieties that do well here no matter what.

 

[so lucky]

They are not forming beans at all. No babies falling off, just flowers. The Fortex right beside them are doing ok. We are going to have some cooler weather for about a week. Maybe that will make a difference.

 

[digitS']

My pole beans are on just 2 teepees. There is a chance that I will have to eat them all by myself altho DW does like the Cascade Giant Rattlesnake as a dry bean.

The other variety is a mystery. A friend liked them and wanted us to try them. DW will have something other than her precious Jade to try.

Whatever they are, they are big 'uns! However 2 weeks ago, I was discounting any chance that they would have beating the rattlesnake into the kitchen. They were slow getting off the mark while the rattlesnake were doing what was required of them. Well, the Mystery kicked out a nice pot-full for us today! I counted 6 pods of rattlesnake. It really looks like they will be champions in production as well as earliness. The weather must have been just what these mystery beans wanted and Boom!

Steve

 

[mellisakent]

What are your temperatures like? Although beans like hot weather, if it gets overly hot for any length of time the blossoms abort.

8 ball pool​

 

[flowerbug]

i don't mind if blossoms abort as then at least i'm not thinking there is a pod with seeds happening. it's frustrating to go pick beans and finding a bunch of empty pods.

i think i have found a bean which drops the entire pod if there aren't seeds formed and this is a heavily desired trait (among many others of these) so i'm going to be encouraging cross breeds to happen as much as i can (short of manually cross breeding which i probably should try some time...).

 

[Zeedman]

In answer to the original post, if flowers are being produced, nitrogen is not an issue. Too much N usually results in a "lots of leaves, but no flowers" problem. I too think it is a question of too much heat, too little water, or a combination of the two. I'm actually surprised to hear that Fortex is doing better under the same conditions, since it is not known for its heat tolerance.

@so lucky , could you give us an update? Hopefully the weather has cooled a little, have the beans begun setting pods yet?

 

[PhilaGardener]

Things are picking up in PA as well as the weather cools and we get some more moisture. Even my runners are starting to set now. Fortex has actually done well throughout, and to my taste they picked up a bit of sweetness when I taste them fresh in the garden compared to earlier in the season.

 

[baymule]

The beans I am growing for Bluejay are doing the same, but are making pods. They are empty and fall off. So frustrating!