Pole Beans Not Flowering

[schmije]

I got three green beans off my pole beans about a month ago, and NOTHING since. The vines have gone crazy on the trellis, and they look fabulous. There are a few flowers and no beans. Maybe it's the drought? I guess that doesn't explain your situation since you've had so much rain recently. The bush beans stopped producing a couple of weeks ago, and I'm at a loss with the pole beans.

 

[Carol Dee]

We lost 1/2 the plants to rabbits and deer. Good thing we planted four long rows! Now it is heat and drought. Tall vines, but not lush like past years and blooming like crazy but no sign of beans. It just may be a bad year for us and beans

 

[vfem]

This happened to us, and then their was blossom drop. I found at the base of the blossom vines (where the leaves, blossoms and the main vine come together) some very tiny soy bean mites! Even things were sucking the life out of the plants. And they only seem to come around when my neighboring farms DON'T grow soy beans that year. I guess its a good thing they are this year because I got TONS of beans this time around.

You see any signs of this little buggers?

 

[desertlady]

Mine is growing slowly. I believe its weather related. My green beans are spoiled by getting lots of water and not paying me back beans

 

[897tgigvib]

So Lucky, look very closely at your bean plants. Have some reading glasses to help. Are you seeing any little iddy bitty cobwebs? They would be found at the leaf nodes. If you do see any micro webs, those are made by micro spiders called spider mites, the onliest type of spider that is herbivorous. Spider mites eat on plants as if the plants were animals, sucking on plant blood, that is, the liquid that plant makes and uses. That very effectively kills plants. Spider mites are hard to kill, the little plant vampires.

Another thing it could be is variety/location. Call it magic or something, but it is true especially with beans and other legumes, that some varieties have a hard time at some locations.

I have heard of expert professionals moving, then planting their Runner Beans, and having total crop failure. What that expert seed grower did was find a local heirloom variety of Runner Bean to grow.

Right here, at my place, I am having the heckevest of a darn time growing Rattlesnake Beans, both of my old selection and of High Mowing's selection. Also, some of my selections of White Greasy are roughing it.

I planted about 40 varieties of Beans this year, only over half my usual count, but some are brand new to me and others are new varieties I'm developing.

Some varieties are just plain slow to start flowering, others are quick. I have pole varieties that flower even before making runners. Some have not yet begun to flower. The really late to mature ones, well, that is exactly the reason they are so rare. They take up space all season. But then, some of those late ones have the coolest and best dry beans you'll never find in your Safeway. Flor De Mayo shellies in a grocery store? Greasy Cutshorts in WalMart?

I have heard tell that in some parts of Missouri they often have crop failures with regular vulgaris beans. Something about the kind of hot it gets there. Find some real old timers in your area, see what kind of beans they grow.

That's your task fertheday. Meet some oldtimer gardeners in your area.

 

[so lucky]

In answer to Marshallsmyth and vfem, I inspected the plants and didn't see any mites or spider mites; no webs, no nothing. I did stop in at the garden center and asked if they had been hearing about problems with pole beans not producing. (Not exactly old timers, but that's the best I could do at the time) They said that is a pretty common complaint this year. Seems our weather, warm nights and hot days has affected them. I'm hoping I can keep them alive and flowering; maybe I will get some to pick later on in the season.

 

[so lucky]

Update on the pole bean saga....I have seen several inch-long beans on the vines in the last few days. We had rain and cooler weather, so I attribute it to that.They are still flowering, so I am hopeful of at least getting a few meals off the beans before frost kills them. Not getting any canning jars out yet, tho!

 

[desertlady]

same here, growing like crazy and no beans yet....

 

[schmije]

I finally picked a couple dozen pole beans yesterday. There are more little ones, so hopefully we'll actually get some this year. The Japanese beetles hit them pretty hard, and they seem to have recovered nicely, although I'm not ready to call them a success for this year.

As for the bush beans, we thought they were finished, but once the heat broke a couple of weeks ago, they came back! I picked about a gallon of them yesterday, and there were a bunch of skinny ones that I left on the plants for a few more days. At least the bush beans are paying their rent this year.

 

[Collector]

Update on the pole bean saga....I have seen several inch-long beans on the vines in the last few days. We had rain and cooler weather, so I attribute it to that.They are still flowering, so I am hopeful of at least getting a few meals off the beans before frost kills them. Not getting any canning jars out yet, tho!

They are probably going to go nuts now. Hopefully