Who's Eating my Beans Again?
My heritage beans 'Mrs Fortunes' have just started to crop. These lovely purple specked beans are coming thick and fast now. But there is a problem...
Something has been eating the leaves. Blog readers were kind enough to suggest who might be a culprit for eating my runner bean flowers so I thought I might put it out to you to see who it is this time.
Was it slugs? blackbirds? snails? deer? Great big chunks of leaf are disappearing at the base of the plant.
Previously with my runner beans I had been wondering why the flowers weren't setting, I thought they were being eaten. One of the suggestions was that the dry weather didn't suit runner beans who like a moist atmosphere to aid pollination.
We haven't had rain here for months, so I started spraying the runner bean foliage each day as well as keeping the roots wet.
And hey presto! runner beans have set! A moist atmosphere helps the flowers pollinate and the runner beans have been setting.So why are my climbing beans Mrs Fortunes being eaten?
I found out today...
It wasn't a slug.
It wasn't a slug.
Buddy loves veggies! every so often he just nibbles some greenery!
posted by Matron @ 7:38 AM
17 Comments:
Hi matron, I can't believe how dry and cracked the ground is. Buddy is priceless!
At least he's eating his greens! Your Mrs Fortune's look very striking. I'm growing Major Cook's bean this year and I'm hoping for similar colouring.
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Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. Cats eat grass-like vegetation too.
I'm going to start a few pots off in my yard over the next year. If it doesn't prove to be a fad, I may see about a plot on the allotment just across the road from me. So I'll enjoy reading all about yours.
Glad you found the culprit!
Have to tell my Robbie. He's also a lab but he does not like veggies.
Ha ha ha...he is one healthy dog. Your enthusiasm for veggies is so infectious that it didn't even spare the poor Buddy.
Lovely to see Buddy enjoying his veggies. Hope he is not finding the heat too much.
That is so funny! I have a veggie-lover here too, my little terrier "Weederman". When I clean arugula, kale and spinach and trim out the thick stems, he's right there to take the stems and crunch them. It's such a treat to him, like a bone! My other little dog "Pepper" can't believe anyone would have interest in an arugula stem, ppffftt!
Ha! Some times the culprit is right under your nose. Those beans look alot like Dragon Tongue Beans.
My parents visted at the weekend and one of their dogs munched his way through a selection of different mints and lemonbalm as he walked down the path. Doesn't seem as bad as when the slugs do it does it? ;>)
It looks like the lower leaves on my raspberry patch - which I know who the culprit is there too - my own little flock of chickens!
Buddy is a sweetheart - who could be upset with a face like that?
Hi Matron, I'm having the same problem with my runners, I'm going to just grow the white flowering varieties from now on as I have been told they are self pollinating. I need to check up on this but thought I'd mention it. It wouldn't suprise me if the whites are the ones grown commercially.
Three cheers for Buddy. Hip hip hooray!
Aren't pets priceless, i had the same trouble with my disapearing strawberries, thought it was birds or squirrels - turned out to be my dog Rosie!
PLEASE!!! Where did you buy Major Cook's Beans, I'd like to give them a try. Thanks, Kate.
These are Mrs Fortunes beans... I do have some spare seed if you want to email me. See my profile. Not Major Cook :-(
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