In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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April 17, 2007

Bean seed failure--damping off

Well, I can report my first failure of the 2007 spring gardening season. Most of the pole bean seeds I planted either didn’t come up at all, or died trying.

I suspect the culprit was damping off, a soil-borne fungi that attacks germinating seeds or young seedlings in the ground. The conditions and symptoms were classic: the weather was cool and the soil not quite warm enough when I planted the beans. Then the weather turned warm, and cool again. The seeds began sprouting - I could see the stems curling out of the ground, but instead of uncurling and standing tall, the stems withered up at ground level.

According to the an Ohio State University Extension article on damping off, “it is not uncommon to lose a crop completely, then reseed and experience no problem.” If I’d waited until the soil temperature was at least 65 degrees (it was 59 degrees when I planted), then likely I never would have had a problem.

I thought about planting seeds again, but while on a nursery tour with the Sacramento Begonia Society, I came across six-packs of rattlesnake pole bean starter plants, decided they sounded interesting and bought them. I’m going to plant them instead of seeds.

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