Do common beans have trouble setting pods in the heat? We’ve had temperatures of 90-100 degrees for most of the last month. That’s normal for our summers, though, and common beans did just fine for me in 2021 with the same amount of heat.
I have some common bean plants flowering right now, and they’ve had flowers for weeks, but I haven’t seen any pods forming yet. That seems . . . odd.
I was concerned that maybe it was a pollination issue, since some of them are under mosquito netting to keep out pollinators (it’s a variety I’m growing for somebody else that I agreed to keep pure), but don’t common beans usually self-pollinate without any help?
Then there’s another variety I’m growing that is covered in flowers, pollinators should have access to it, and I don’t see any pods yet. I’m a bit concerned.
Shouldn’t I be seeing pods by now? Or am I just being impatient?
What do you recommend I do, to get those plants to make pods for me?
I would guess compination of heat and drought. Sometimes it might be right on the edge and one year is just slightly more favourable than other. The way I understand they self-pollinate and after emasculating some flowers I do wonder how they would actually outcross. Pods form really fast and I have been collecting them already some time even though they only started flowering mid july. Maybe takes a week to have them visible after pollination.
It’s been a month since they start flowering, and no sign of pods.
They’ve had a fair amount of water (I’ve been nicer to them than most of my plants), so it’s probably not that. Or it is that, and they’re too finickypants. If it’s the heat, maybe they’ll start setting pods in October, when the heat finally lowers? (Which is right before the first frost date?)
