Yellow leaves with spots on my green beans

[jmoore]

Well here's topic #2 for everyone.

I have green beans planted and growing up a trellis along a fence. They shot right up the trellis and even snaked themselves through the cracks in the fence. I recently noticed that some of the plants have yellowing leaves with little brown spots down at the base. I pulled them, but the problem seems to be moving up the plant and spreading to some of the neighbors.

These beans are in the same bed as my cucumbers (and everything else). So I'm wondering if it's soil and/or sun related. And how full should these beans be? Mine are not very thick with leaves.

Here's another blurry cell phone pic or two.

[cynthia_h]

I'm not sure about the yellow leaves, but some of your green ones have leaf miners, judging by the curly paths the miners have chewed through.

The insects are *between* the inside and outside of the leaf, so no contact methods will remove them. I just cut affected leaves off and throw them in the garbage, NOT the compost. I've also been known to cut off only the affected part of a leaf and not the entire thing.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[jmoore]

I have those on lots of leaves. I'm afraid if I pull them all, I won't have much of my plants left.

Is it possible to be an abject failure at something you've only tried for two months? This garden is a lot more frustrating than I thought it would be.

I'm not sure about the yellow leaves, but some of your green ones have leaf miners, judging by the curly paths the miners have chewed through.

The insects are *between* the inside and outside of the leaf, so no contact methods will remove them. I just cut affected leaves off and throw them in the garbage, NOT the compost. I've also been known to cut off only the affected part of a leaf and not the entire thing.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[applestar]

Do what Cynthia said -- take a pair of scissors and cut out the "doodles".

Take heart, it's a lifetime of trial-and-error learning experiences, but it gets easier... and more FUN! as you go.

[cynthia_h]

This is the meaning of Jefferson's statement in my signature: even though he was an old man (and Jefferson kept detailed gardening journals for several decades), he was still young when it came to understanding gardening.

Two months is just long enough to have learned a few things that won't work and a few that will.

Let's see...there are tens of thousands of domesticated plants, and thousands of edible ones; I have no idea how many fruiting/nut-bearing trees, since there are over 400 named apples...

Gardening, music, languages, and quilting are the four fields of endeavor which make an extended life span seem very much worth it. Hmm...dogs, cooking...

None of which can any one person master, even by focusing on one to the exclusion of others, in a single lifetime.

Except maybe for Masanobu Fukuoka-sensei, who *was* a master in farming/gardening....see our Permaculture Forum for discussions on him.

Cynthia H. (Obon is near, it must be; my skin just creeped when I typed Sensei's name)