Diseased broad bean plants

[Veg lady]

Has anyone ever seen broad bean plants looking like this? I have a crop of 40 plants and they are all effected to some extent. The upper leaves are curled or absent and the plants are stunted. The less effected plants have flowers but have not fertilised. I'm growing the beans in a new raised vegetable bed comprising a mix of top soil, horse manure and compost. I can't see any insects of any kind and I really have no idea what has caused the problem.

[roitelet]

Welcome to the vine.

Sorry to see the state of your broad beans. You say that you have used horse manure. Are you sure that the hay fed to the horses wasn't sprayed with herbicide. This passes through the horses but remains in the dung. Amalipropid if I've spelt it right. I am sure that some one else will be along shortly who knows more about it than I do.

[Martin H]

Hard to tell from the small picture, either scorch from too-rich soil or distortion from aminopyralid residues. Beans are notoriously susceptible to residues of aminopyralid weedkiller, sometimes present in horse manure because it goes straight through the horse and persists for some years. Hopefully it's not that and the plants will recover. Are any plants in other beds affected?

[bario1]

Looks like aminopyralid contamination to me, but the picture is too small to tell really. Mine were affected last year, do they look like this?

[Veg lady]

Thanks very much for the rapid and informative replies.

Apologies for the picture quality, look exactly like your picture Bario only more severe. I passed some seedlings onto a friend and they are growing well in his allotment so it's unlikely there is something fundamentally wrong with the plants. The other crops I have in the raised bed all seem fine.

I got the horse manure from a garden centre so I have no idea of its origins. Assuming it is contaminated with herbicide, will it degrade enough that I can plants broad beans again next year?

[bario1]

Unless there is a lot of it, i'd be tempted to dig it out after this season and replace it. Was it a branded product you bought? I would contact your garden centre and let them know, they wont want to be selling any more of that!
What other crops do you have in your bed? Potatoes, beans, peas and tomatoes are all badly affected, onions also, but not sweetcorn or squashes - I know all this from personal experience and research.
I'm very surprised to hear you bought the manure from a garden centre, that is really quite a shocking thought - mine was collected by me from a stables where the grazing field had obviously been sprayed with ForeFront weedkiller or something similar. There are very strict laws about the use of manure after such treatments, so someone could be in big trouble if it's somehow made it onto a shop floor.

[Veg lady]

It was indeed a branded product from my local Hilliers. I'll definitely be getting in touch with them as this is very disappointing after a lot of effort to get the bed built for this season.

Amongst other things I have mangetout and runner beans in the bed, both of which seem okay at the moment, although I only planted the latter put a week ago. I also have potatoes and they are definitely odd. At one end of the row they are growing well but at the other end the plants are very small and one plant has some odd shrivelled leaves. I'm now wondering if one end of the bed had more manure dug in than the other end.

It's all a lesson learned, if it was easy it wouldn't be fun!

[veggiechicken]

Hi and welcome!
I've tried to enlarge your piccie - if that helps anyone suggest the cause.

[bario1]

It's hard enough growing your own without having your veg poisoned and paying for the privilege!

I would take photos and send them to whoever produced the manure, they should at least refund you, and they might look more carefully at their sources in future, as itd be a big scandal if they were proved to be bagging contaminated manure...

I assume you haven't used weedkiller of any sort nearby this season?

Do your affected spuds look like this?

If you don't want to replace the contents of your bed, just keep digging it over through the winter - exposure to air degrades the chemical over time. It really is evil stuff though, banned for a while but reintroduced quite recently.

[SusieG]

Hi Veg lady, welcome to the Vine! Sorry that you've had problems with your new veg bed - it's really disheartening when you put so much effort/time/hope into it all - then something out of your control comes along to spoil it ......
I know that is what growing is all about, some seasons better than others.
Hey-Ho ~ live and learn

Might it be worth digging it out (more hard work...) and working in fresh compost/BFB/topsoil .... sounds a bit drastic I suppose, but that manure and the toxins present in it could affect your soil for many growing seasons .....

Good luck!

[Martin H]

If it is aminopyralid, the RHS has this advice:

To speed up the rate of breakdown of residues on contaminated land, rotovate or dig over the soil several times, preferably between summer and autumn when the soil is at its warmest. This ensures the manure is fully incorporated into the soil and increases microbial activity. Concentrate on mixing in pockets of manure, such as found at the bottom of manure-lined trenches.

Residue levels in the soil peak at three weeks after digging before breaking down relatively rapidly. This means affected ground is usually safe to replant by the following spring.

Full article here.

[Veg lady]

Gratefully the potatoes don't look that bad, the plants just differ in size across the row so the ones at one end are almost 3 times the size of the ones at the other end. I've attached a photo of the leaves, I don't know if it's bigger than previously, the poor quality may be because I'm uploading on my phone.

As for weed killer, no we haven't used any but we did have an issue with sewage back in April. Standing water in our garden tested positive for ammonia following a burst sewage pipe in the main road outside our house. The water company sprayed the whole garden with what they called 'a mild disinfectant'. I have no idea what was in it but I assumed it wasn't toxic to plants as everything was doused in it. This was well before any veg was planted out but obviously the disinfectant would have been in the top layer of soil. I'm going to drop the water company an email and see if they can shed any light.

[Veg lady]

Thank you Martin H for that link, good to know that even if the ground is contaminated were not doomed for years to come!

[happyhumph]

Yes thanks Martin H - very useful to know as I will be collecting manure either from a friend or local stables soon.