I have planted pole beans several times in my Willamette valley, Oregon vegetable garden and have not had much luck. They are never very productive and the vines look pretty sad; not vigorous at all; they seem to have many fewer leaves than they should and are just pretty puny looking. I also noticed that some of the older leaves have brown spots on them. I am including photos. I water with drip irrigation every other day. I add compost to the raised bed each year before planting and rotate what gets planted in the beds. I have good luck with corn, strawberries and greens of all kinds, moderate success with tomatoes and zucchini. Cucumbers and potatoes do better than the pole beans but are not particularly successful. Any suggestions? Thanks
You have mention water and compost but you haven’t mentioned any fertilizer. Pole beans must make strong growth before flowering if you want a good crop, I would recommend a soluble hi nitrogen fertilizer 24-8-16.
Soil definatly is short of something. Do you plant in a different spot each year or are you using the same spot every season. Looks like there is also some disease. Liz
My pole beans are off to a rough start this year as well. I'm on my 4th sowing now.. I know the birds have been taking some of them but they seem to have a problem germinating. I loosened up the soil yesterday and sowed some more and I am finding poorly germinated seed in the soil. Never had this problem before.. I purchased the seed from West Coast Seeds so I would expect it to be appropriate for my climate and to also have a high germination rate.. Weather has been hot as well. Odd..
