String beans

[alanr]

I'm new to gardening. We live in a semi tropical zone and planted some string beans early October. The 9 plants climbed the 2.5m poles we placed and appeared to be doing fine when all of a sudden the leaves in the center area of the plant have wilted and fallen off. The top of the plants are doing OK and the bottom is doing better. There is no evidence I can see of insect or disease. Temperatures have been 25 - 30 C and plenty of rain. We purchased the soil for our little garden, perhaps we should fertilize? Everything else, broccoli, carrot, garlic, lettuce, tomato and celery is doing OK. Any suggestions? Thank You Al

[David Hare-Scott]

Hard to say without seeing the beans but my guess is it's a fungus. Under your conditions there may be little that you can do about it.

David

[Omelet]

Add some sulphur to the soil.

[Billy]

Are you going for a particular weight per surface area or a paricular pH drop?

[alanr]

Hmmm - fungus.. maybe a soap solution sprayed on? Nothing visible on the stalks. I forgot to mention all 9 plants are doing it, they all started within days of each other and the leaves are dropping where they attach at the stalk. I will explore a fertilizer that has sulfur in it. We are trying to be as chemical free in this project as possible. I just discovered, much to my dismay, that lettuce actually has a flavor to it! Thanks for the responses. Al

[Omelet]

pH drop. The local nursery sold me some soil sulphur when I had fungal root rot in my English Ivy. It worked. I just followed package directions, then followed up two weeks later with some soil flora powder.