red/brown spots on green beans

[cityfarmer]

I am wondering if I have rust on my green beans, if it is harmful to eat the green beans with it, can I still blanch, freeze, and vaccuum pack them? I harvested my first batch of green beans on 8/5. Harvested my second batch of green beans today, 8/13. First batch did not have red/brown spots all over them. This batch did. About a week and a half ago we got about 3 inches of rain in 4 days (no joke) which is probably when this batch was developing. I have never had green beans with this before and the plants look fine. Tried pictures, but the spots really aren't visible. I did not know if I should put this post here or in diseases and pests. If it is in the wrong place, sorry!

 

[digitS']

I wish I could tell you for sure about the bean rust, CityFarmer. There are toxic fungi but I've never heard anything about bean rust being one of them. Certainly, lots of fungus plants live with and on our veggies in every garden.

And, plants they are. It's like growing another plant species out there - the fungus liked the conditions whether your veggies do or do not !

I'm trying to get a handle on how to deal with fungal diseases. Often, they are a real problem even if I'm skipping by without seeing many problems this year. (I'll be out later this morning to clean the mildew damaged branches off the climbing rose :/.)

With the ornamentals, and snapdragons can be absolutely destroyed by rust, it is fairly simple to spray on some fungicide but I don't want to spray just anything on my food crops. I'm willing to pull out the early plantings of summer squash if the mildew gets too bad for them and rely on later-planting of those younger and with more resistance, late in the season.

I can't get bush beans to a healthy 2nd picking because of spider mites so I haven't had to worry much about late season disease. Yes, I can kill the mites but it is also easy to have a 2nd planting of beans going in another bed somewhere.

With the fungal disease plants, conditions have been favorable so, maybe, making conditions unfavorable is why things like vinegar and bicarbonate solutions sometimes works against the diseases. Since, even my irrigation water is a high pH, I'm thinking about trying a vinegar solution to see how it works. BTW - I understand that it is potassium bicarbonate rather than sodium bicarbonate that is more effective against these diseases.

How milk solutions might fit into these methods, I don't really know. I suppose, you'd get so many other organisms interested in the milk that the fungal disease might just be overwhelmed. Not to make light of the problem and Best of Luck with those beans, CityFarmer - but, cheese is real good on green beans. As a sauce, not as a spray . . .

Steve

 

[cityfarmer]

Thanks for your help. I talked to a lady that I work with and her suggestion was not to serve them to company and not to can them. Cheese sauce sounds good!