periwinkl

Straggly French bean plants (indoors) help please!

periwinkl
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

Hello Houzz garden experts, I’d be grateful for your help please!


Like many others, I’m new to growing things and I’ve been pouring over this forum and Googling many and all symptoms to make sure I’m not killing any of my plants. I’m in zone 9A but all my plants are indoors where the temperature is around 68F/20c year-round.


My French beans (I have two varieties, the regular-looking, green tender crop and the Borlotti ones) were planted a month ago, and have been shooting up ever since. They are now pushing 30” high, despite the seed packet saying that they should really grow to a max of 18”. I grew them from seed in multi-purpose mixed with perlite (3:1) and one lot is in a terracotta pot and another in a glazed ceramic pot, both of which have drainage holes. I have a moisture probe and only water when it says dry, which is around once a week. They’re right under sloping windows so get light all day (so I didn’t think they were growing straggly due to lack of light), I don’t have any lights installed.


I wouldn’t mind them growing so tall except that some of the stems aren’t supporting the weight of the leaves and the budding blossoms, so I’ve put in bamboo stakes for support even though this wasn’t a variety that was supposed to need support. I read that beans tend to produce nitrogen, which favours leaf growth over fruit/flower and with the soil having nowhere to go (being pot-bound) I wondered if the cause was excess nitrogen, or if I’m over-worrying and sometimes plants just grow taller than normal?


The very basic supermarket-bought pH-tester tells me the soil is toward the alkaline end, but with the multi-purpose compost and perlite both being neutral pH I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the pH level?


I’ve not fed anything as yet, because I was worried that I would be adding more nitrogen in again, though I do have tomato feed to hand which is an NPK 4-5-10 solution.


Looking online this doesn’t seem to be a common issue (i.e. bean plants in pots producing too much nitrogen) but then I noticed one set of leaves having spots of discolouration (neither yellow or brown) in the middle of the leaf and some shadow-like discolouration along the edges, the other leaf in the set has withered but is still green for the time being.


No visible bugs apart from my cats chomping on the leafs, and I’d be grateful if the more experienced of you can pitch in, even if it’s just “you’re overthinking this, stay the course and see what happens in another month when the plant should fruit”!

Thank you!



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