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montpeliergrower

Peppers and bush beans (truning yellow)

11 years ago

Among the vegetables we have in our raised beds this year, our peppers (a mix of hot and various other variates) and bush beans are turning yellow. The bush beans are actually doing very well, but they are showing yellow spotting on some of their older, lower leaves.

The peppers are not showing spotting, so much as their entire leaves are turning yellow and they are just not growing well.

I hope to do a soil test soon, which may give us some answers, but I was hoping someone might have some suggestions in the interim.

Note that Montpelier, VT, where our garden is, just had its wettest June on record, with just over 9 inches of rain, so this is possibly a factor. But I'm assuming there is a nutrient deficiency involved.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Comments (2)

  • 11 years ago

    In my garden the peppers are also small and a bit chartreuse in color. I think it's a combination of wet weather and cool temperatures since peppers would much rather have average moisture and HOT weather. We've had nights in past couple of weeks in the 40's, and almost none warmer than the 50's which is pushing it even for the pepper varieties that I grow which are far more tolerant of less-than-ideal weather than most peppers (Hungarian Wax and Ace). And with the exception of some days back in the super dry weather of May we haven't gotten above the low to mid 80's, which when combined with the cloudy wet weather, has really slowed their development. I am starting to harvest a few of the Hungarian Wax, which set fruit at an amazingly small size back during the hot stretch in May, but the plants are still scrawny.

    Raised beds should drain well, but the amount of rain may have washed out some of your nutrients, I am not sure. The cool temperatures mean that the usual advantage of raised beds warming more quickly than in-ground gardens may not be in effect so much this season.

    Regardless of what comes back on your soil test, don't add a lot of nitrogen to the peppers or beans. Compared to most crops they like the soil to be relatively low in nitrogen, and if you add it you will have more leaves than fruit. I find in my garden that if I mulch with compost, add ash from the woodstove in the fall after harvest, and every couple of years a couple of truckloads of manure, that the garden does fine, but this spot has been a veggie garden for many more years than I have been alive. (We found a harness bell when turning it one year.) I'd be interested in what your soil test tells you.

    Here are my peppers, with the Hungarian hot wax on the left and the Ace bell peppers on the right. To give an idea of size, the plant in the lower right is all of 9 inches tall, and the stakes are 3 feet. The stakes look awfully optimistic, but the wax peppers get so heavy from their pepper load most years that the fruit is resting on the ground, so I've learned to support them.


    I am not growing beans this year, but in general for veggie crops, IME spotting and yellow on lower leaves will be a fungal or bacterial leaf disease caused when hard rain splashes soil-borne spores onto the leaves. My general practice is to cut off and dispose of these leaves so that the rest of the foliage stays healthier, and then to put new mulch under the plants to reduce the amount of splashing onto the leaves. Just visible at the top of the photo is the mulch under the tomato plants that is there for that reason.

  • 11 years ago

    amazed at the nice sized peppers on those little plants so early in July. Your soil building practices must be great. Thanks for the tips.