The problem I run into with most any blooming/fruiting, self-pollinating plant is when the air temps are consistently below the mid-to upper 70s daytime and even cooler nights is they just don't set fruit. Instead the blossoms drop off because the pollen is no longer viable at those temps.

You see this most frequently with tomato plants but it applies to most all self-pollinators to varying degrees.

So while the plants will continue to grow, assuming good sun exposure remains, the production falls off.

Don't know your location or your planting date for them but you might consider planting them a little earlier next time so you can get more fruit set before the temps fall. Of course there is always the possibility your still get some Indian Summer days of heat for them depending on your locale.

Dave

Thanks, Dave. The beans were planted August 10, which is right on target with information from our Missouri (zone 5) Extension service. We have a drilled well so were able to keep them watered and then came up very quickly and then we had sufficient rain, etc. so they are luscious. I actually did go through them again today and harvested another small group, but the plants are just LOADED with beans. This is the Strike variety of bush beans and the Blue Lake are nice but just not as full of beans.. If we can just have about 3 more days of sun they might produce a great crop. However, you may be right about getting them planted just a little earlier, maybe around the 1st of August. Oh, by the way, because of deer, rabbits, etc., we had to put up this fencing project as my spring plants were eaten up by these hungry critters. I am going to try to post a picture of my set-up. (could not figure this out but it is a 7-8' high wire fence around these plants to keep deer out and chicken wire at the bottom to keep out the rabbits)

Aug 10 would be very late to plant beans in zone 6.

I agree on planting them earlier next year. I plant my fall bush beans around July 20th here in the KC area and start harvesting around the first or second week of September. I yanked out my plants a couple weeks ago after harvesting 4 times for a total of 32 lbs. I'll be planting garlic in the same 4x10 bed in a couple more weeks.

Thanks Lone Jack - if that is where you live it is very close to us. QUESTION & need answer ASAP, as there is a frost warning tonight. Do you know if a light frost will hurt the beans that are on the plants (which are just a couple days from being ready) or will it just hurt the foliage and blooms? I really don't care if I get any more blooms, as the plants are just loaded with beautiful long, but immature beans. I have four rows 30' long each so it would be very hard to even cover them up this evening. Any ideas?

Cawill - sorry I didn't see this until this morning. Hopefully you were able to protect them somewhat as naturegirl suggested. I've never had beans in at the time of first frost but I've had picked beans get 'frost damage' when in the fridge at temperatures several degrees above freezing.

It was 30 at my house when I left for work this morning with a pretty heavy frost glistening in my headlights. October 16 is only one day earlier than the average.

Thanks Nature Girl & Lone Jack - yes it was 31 degrees this morning - we were not ale to cover the plants, just too many and not enough time or materials. We did rinse off the frost on the leave this morning before sun was out, as I've heard can help. The foliage does look stunted but the nearly mature beans are looking okay I believe. We will probably go ahead and pull up some plants & pick beans off today, but only maybe one row or two and leave others to see if they will continue to mature in the next couple days which are supposed to get into the upper 50's and 60 degrees. Lows are not supposed to be nearly as cold as it was last night. Every day is a learning experience, isn't it? Yes, next year if we do this again (???) we will plant a little earlier.

UPDATE - well after this hard frost/freeze, as I stated the foliage was pretty hard hit, BUT we had about 4 days of warm sunshine and temps around upper 60's and low 70's and the beans did mature some. (I believe the heavy foliage actually acted like an umbrella and protected the beans underneath) We went ahead and pulled up the plants (as it got cool again with rain forecast) and harvested a good number of beans, but if we had had about another 3 days of warmth I would have had about 3 times more! Good learning lesson - yes, plant a little earlier and don't get in a hurry to give up on them if there is a frost. I now have about 45 jars of beans to last probably two years!