What's wrong with my Broad Beans

[Python15]

I have my Sutton broad beans growing in plastic troughs, about 1 1/2' long and 1' deep, three plants per trough. All has been well until the sparrows decided they liked the leaves. They've outgrown the sparrows but now some of the plants have started to take on a distinctly yellow appearance. No other symptoms such as brown mould etc. Any ideas what could be wrong or remedies?

[Greenleaves]

Run out of food, too wet for first guesses

[Jay-ell]

They may have exhausted the nutrients in the compost - are you feeding them. Although beans will form a symbiotic partnership with nitrogen fixing bacteria if it's commercial compost then the bacteria wouldn't be present unless you added it (you can buy it in packet form to soak the beans with before you sow).

Try a general purpose liguid feed.

[Python15]

Too wet could be a possibility but some of the plants in the same containers are fine and show no yellowing at all. I have been feeding them a generic vegetable feed however. If I remember I will post a photo once I get home from work, might give a better indication.

[nickdub]

Try having a furtle around in the soil of one of the ailing ones just to make sure there are no beasties causing the problem.

[Python15]

There's been some black fly activity lately, are they troublesome to beans? Here are the pictures of some of them. As you can see they grow at the top of a five foot fence next to the main road. I'm just wondering if they've had a bit of beer ingestion on a Saturday night? As you can see the ones on the third photo are ok, maybe just the bottom leaf yellowish.

[nickdub]

Could be beer, or it could be a nutrient problem - the blackfly start on the growing tips of the beans, so keep an eye on those.

[Squingy]

To add to the above.
Mentioned wet, but the soil looks dryish and broad beans prefer cool weather. Mayhap it's in too much sun with not enough water?
Good luck

[Python15]

To add to the above.
Mentioned wet, but the soil looks dryish and broad beans prefer cool weather. Mayhap it's in too much sun with not enough water?
Good luck

Could be you know, it has been unseasonably nice up here with not a lot of rain although they get watered about every other day and they do get the sun for about 12-14 hours a day. Also now that you mention it the ones that are least yellow get shade in the afternoon from a large leylandii. You may well have cracked it my friend! What's the likelyhood of them recovering given shade do you think?

[Vince G]

Don't think I'd be growing broadies in pots / troughs. They like to be dampish, so I'd always grow them in the soil

[Python15]

Don't think I'd be growing broadies in pots / troughs. They like to be dampish, so I'd always grow them in the soil

Well it's an experiment really and since it's a dwarf variety I thought "why not give it a go". If you look closely enough you might see my carrots in bins too. Got so fed up with carrot fly I thought I'd give the theory that they can't get above a meter a try, see if it's true. Also I'm the only person in the family that likes broad beans so didn't see the point using up valuable growing space for a few bean plants.

[Python15]

Wee update. When watering the beans last night I noticed that if the water pooled a bit, the pots with the yellowish leaves had what looked like corn lice swimming about in the water. They immediately climbed up the pot and waited till the water had gone before returning to the soil. What do you think this could be and could it be the root of my problem? There are no black fly on the plants (now that I know what I'm looking for).

[nickdub]

I'd knock one of the suffering plants out of its pot and treat us to a photo of one of the suspect bugs, if you have time - someone will identify it hopefully - guilty, unless proved innocent IMO.

[Python15]

It's nigh on impossible to get a picture, they move so damn fast and they can jump a tower block! I tried to get some on a small piece of white paper but every time I did, by the time I got the camera sorted it had either wandered off or jumped off or it was so out of focus it looked like a dark smudge. I got my grand daughter to water them while I took a piccy but you cant make much out. I've attached the best of a bad lot.

[veggiechicken]

I've no idea what Corn lice look like but is your problem fungus gnats?

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