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One of my relatives started a bean garden this year. As I was visiting her she was showing me the plants and she was wondering what was wrong with this plant? I inspected all the plants for her and this one looked the worst. A couple more showed a little spotting but the rest were okay. Any ideas? Should she pull the plants that are spotted?

Please respond, they are desperate to know if this is a disease or not!

To me this looks like burn from something splashed on the particular leaves. Even dog pee....

...oh! If it’s already hot where you are, one other issue to watch out for is HOT WATER in the irrigation hose or pipe that is on or close to the ground surface. When the water first comes out.

Thank-you so much for replying!! This are not my beans, but she does not have irrigation pipes , or a dog so thats not the problem. I found out later that she had sprayed the young beans plants with neem oil to kill aphids. I have a feeling she may have sprayed too much and they have oil burns. Should I tell her to pull up the burned plants or will they keep growing out with new growth?

NEVER pull up plants unless they are diseased or infested beyond recovery. (Or are growing where they are not wanted = WEEDS)

MOST cases of leaf injury only requires that the affected leaves are removed so as not to attract pests or fungal infection that could spread to the rest of the plant.

Okay, I'll let her know that she shouldn't pull them up, but pinch off the infected leaves. I've never worked with neem oil, but that stuff must be potent. I guess if you spray anything that's oil-based you should put it in the shade to prevent burning, then wash it off with water before putting back in the sun?

I recall a year or two ago when I sprayed my tomato plants with vegetable oil to kill some inscet and not only only did it kill the insects, but the plants to. I know now to never spray oil-based products on plants EVER again.