This is my second year with pole bean leaves turning yellow this time though
they turned yellow much earlier. Last year I grew blue lake and kentucky wonder
this year I tried Rattlesnake. The plants grew about three inches tall and all
plants were yellowing. So I pulled the whole crop and tilled the bed over.
Does anyone use Innoculants? Would that help?
I m having great results with the rest of the garden but the beans are driving
me nuts!
A. Inoculating been seeds with ryzobia (sp) bacteria can help improve
the nitrogen for that crop, and to a lesser extent for a later crop in the same
bed as well.
Soaking the seed will generally speed up the germination, but be careful you
don't use water that is hotter than 120 degrees fahrenheit. I use luke-warm
water myself.
It's too bad you pulled the crop before figuring out what was wrong. Was
it grown in the same place as beans were grown last year? What were the
symptoms, exactly? There are 6 elements the deficiencies of which can be
exhibited as yellowing of some or all of the plant. Bright yellow, tending
to orange means one thing; yellow interveinal tissue with green veins meens one
of two other nutrients; yellowing of older leaves only means another one;
mottled spotty yellowing in parts of older leaves means something else, and
yellowing of the entire plant can mean one or more other nutrients.
I highly recommend EVERYONE who is serious about growing food get The Garden
Doctor, by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider. I believe it's easily the best
publication anywhere to describe and illustrate nutrient deficiency symptoms and
their corrective treatments for vegetables and fruits.