Brown dry patches on Bush Bean leaves

I went back and read the topic that dealt with this already, but everyone had said their new leaves were fine and in the end their plants were alright, but no one knew a cause. Well I have the same problem this year. I've never grown beans before, but hearing how easy they are made me want to try, so I planted some yellow pencil wax and blue lake bush in one of my ebuckets. Some of the first leaves had brown patches, but now there are more sets of true leaves up, and they have brown patches too! No pests in sight, and I haven't over fertilized because I haven't fertilized at all. Watering is even every day due to the self-watering ebucket they are in. What could be causing this, and do you think these will still produce beans?

Here is another photo

I had the very same thing happen to my bush beans, kindlekat. I've never experienced this before. I checked the plants this morning, and they are starting to set beans and have lots of flowers.

Mine are "Topcrop" and were 2009 seeds. These were seeds left over from that year. When I sowed the same seeds in 2009 they grew just fine.

I thought my problem was over-fertilizing them! LOL

This message was edited Jun 13, 2011 11:24 AM

Honeybee
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I grabbed my Organic Guide to Disease and Pest control book, but I can't figure out what this description fits in the book. The closest was maybe a virus, and that the beans themselves are infected. But they are brand new seeds from the year, bought at one of the big box stores, and it seems unlikely this could have hit them since the soil/compost is brand new as well.

I'm wondering if I just remove the infected ones, if it will spread still.....

Please keep this thread updated on the state of your beans, and I'll do the same!

I ALWAYS get that on bush beans. I don't know what causes it - maybe just sunburn, maybe a fungus. I always raise a good crop of beans in spite of it, though at the end of their life cycle the brown spots spread and the plants finally die of it - about when they're ready to die anyway.

I think it's probably a fungus disease, because I made a mistake with a row of bush beans one year and lost the whole row. I picked beans when the plants were wet, and I know better than to do that. After that picking the brown spots spread rapidly and the plants conked out long before their time.

Sometimes I spray my beans with Daconil when I'm spraying tomato plants for fungal diseases and I've got some left over in the sprayer. I've never been very diligent about spraying beans with that, and I can't say it's made any difference. Just don't handle the plants when they're wet, I know that much.

When these were sown the weather was very dry. Fungus usually shows up when there's a lot of rain. The original crop in 2009 did not have these problems. The leaves are fine now, just a few holes from a recent hail shower and bug damage. I've picked-off a couple of Mexican bean beetles!

The beans look as though they will be ready to harvest by the end of this week. I tasted one (raw) this morning and it had a nice "beany" flavour.

Will try to get a photo later...

Well, you're certainly not alone! I have the same problem (also my first year for beans). I planted Bush Blue Lake (8 plants), Dragons Tongue (4), and Purple Queen (4) beans. I managed to get about 2 servings of beans from the Blue Lakes (they should produce more than that, right?), but only 3 purple beans and nothing from the Dragon's Tongue before they looked so bad that I just cut them down. I planted another round of Dragon's Tongue and Velour (Purple) Dwarf French beans (in a different container) to see what happens. I also planted some pole beans. I'm tempted to spray them with something as a deterrent, but without knowing what's ailing them, it's like shooting in the dark!

YIKES! What's going on?

Something in the air?

Here's a photo of mine taken this afternoon. As you can see, they are fine now.

KindleKat, My bush Blue Lake did the same this year, I thought it was water/sun burn. Didn't pay much attention after, just extra careful not to get the leaves wet. They're done for the year, froze a gallon and canned 28 quarts. I suspect yours will grow out just the same, happy eating :0)

HoneybeeNC,
Those are very pretty. Do they stay compact like that and grow toward the ground, or will they grow taller and need to be trellised up?

Gymgirl - they grow as small bushes and don't need trellising. I picked a few this morning and will steam them later for dinner.

I'm also growing Fortex pole beans. The bush beans are Topcrop and are shorter in lenghth than Fortex.

Honeybee - looking great!
I don't have a new photo, but there aren't any new patches from what I can tell, and there are three new undamaged leaves on each plant, so I'm hoping I'll actually get some beans this year. I think I'll do some liquid seaweed fertilizer next week just to be on the safe side, and see what happens. Still can't find an accurate description of our problem in any of the pest & disease books I've checked....what is this issue that everyone seems to get and no one can name? It's frustrating me, but as long as I get some beans out of it some time I'll be happy. Glad to see your plants are doing well again!