Mites on my poor beans?

Hi everyone. I got home this afternoon to discover my poor wee beans were suddenly looking a bit unhappy. PIctures below. There are 'threads' on the back of the leaves, and the parts that look all brown are crackly and dry. The leaves that aren't at that stage yet are going a bit yellow (although some are untouched). From the reading I've done tonight, it looks like maybe it's spider mites. Do more knowledgeable people agree? I'd like to be able to treat it with something I can make at home rather than buying chemicals - any suggestions for effective treatments? I've read that you can control them with similar methods to aphids, so would the soap and water trick work? Thanks heaps in advance!

Hey Sonya, I think this year everyone is getting a real new experience with bugs due to the climatic change, if only more people would see the bigger picture. My advice from personal experience would be to remove the infected leaves and then spray once with 1ltr water with two mashed cloves of garlic. soak 24 hrs and strain and add a few shavings of sunlight soap. shake well. Beans are an extremley hardy plant and very underestimated/ Even if you get back to the stalk of your bean have FAITH because 9/10 it will grow back and give you healthy beans. Another thing to have in your garden is calendula as these are a good all round magical plant taking on different purposes at different times. eg some time through out the year they are medicinal other times beneficial and other times sacrificial as a host plant for all the nasties. Happy to send you some seeds if you wish.
Happy gardening
Claire

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Sonya February 24, 2009 at 2:37am

Thanks so much Claire! As a very new gardener, it's really worrying to see my plants looking less than perfect and finding so many answers out there as to what the problem is, what to do about it, etc. It turns out we have some calendula seeds (but thanks for the offer), so I'll get some more planted and try the garlic/soap spray. I had been picking off the worst affected leaves, so I'm glad to know I wasn't killing the poor plants doing that!
Claire Mummery February 23, 2009 at 10:41am

Hey Sonya, I think this year everyone is getting a real new experience with bugs due to the climatic change, if only more people would see the bigger picture. My advice from personal experience would be to remove the infected leaves and then spray once with 1ltr water with two mashed cloves of garlic. soak 24 hrs and strain and add a few shavings of sunlight soap. shake well. Beans are an extremley hardy plant and very underestimated/ Even if you get back to the stalk of your bean have FAITH because 9/10 it will grow back and give you healthy beans. Another thing to have in your garden is calendula as these are a good all round magical plant taking on different purposes at different times. eg some time through out the year they are medicinal other times beneficial and other times sacrificial as a host plant for all the nasties. Happy to send you some seeds if you wish.
Happy gardening
Claire

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Food Growing Q&A

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