Pride comes before a fall......yet again!

[Comfreyfan]

I was wrong.....again!

I was so proud of my runner bean row this year. It was magnificent, loads of growth, more flowers than usual and plentiful beans. I prepared a trench at the beginning of the season and filled it with green manure tops - I thought the beans would love that. But now I have chocolate spot (the bean row that is, not me personally!). It's not that much of a problem as the beans are coming to their natural end now anyway and it hasn't affected anything else.

Part of the problem can be poor air circulation apparently, so you needn't be too generous with the nitrogen feed. I'm guessing my green manure tops gave the beans way too much, giving me so much leaf growth that the air flow through the row was poor.

You live and learn in this game don't you!!

[rustylady]

The main point of giving the beans a compost-filled trench is to provide a moisture reserve as much as a food reserve. They won't get too much nitrogen from a bean trench, don't worry. Chocolate spot can happen to anyone, at least you got a decent crop of beans.

[Rocketron]

BTW you don't feed beans with nitrogen, they feed it into the ground.