Sharon,

You sure have had some challenges in your garden this year, which just goes to show that too much rain can be as bad as too little.

I think it is likely that the bean issue is weather-related, but slow growth and yellowing foliage also could be a symptom of root knot nematodes. In this case, knowing that you have had lots of rain this summer and that it often has fallen in pretty large amounts at one time, I suspect the excess moisture has harmed the plant roots somehow, possibly by keeping them so full of water that they cannot take up nutrients from the soil. I've had that happen with tomato plants in very wet years like 2007 and their growth remained stalled until the rain stopped falling, it got really dry and the soil dried out. They did produce a good harvest that year, albeit a very late one.

Often bean plants will put out a new flush of leaves, blooms and beans after the weather cools down in mid-to late-August if they remain healthy enough. Some years when they already have produced well but still seem to have some vigor, I've cut the plants back by about 50% and had great regrowth, blooming and harvests. I have pole beans that are sort of stuck like yours are, but I've blamed it on the heat since we really haven't had excess rainfall here. We remain in moderate drought, so even though I have watered the beans regularly, I am not sure it has been enough to overcome the heat and lack of rainfall.

Alternately, you have plenty of time to plant new bush beans for fall if you want to. The OSU-recommended planting dates for bush beans are Aug 10-20. I already planted fall pole beans last week, and have sown seed indoors for fall bush beans that I'll transplant into the ground the minute they sprout.

I likely will have to cover up all the fall bean plants with floating row cover, though, or the grasshoppers will eat every bit of the plants before they can produce anything. I did leave my spring-planted pole beans in the garden but don't know if they'll stay happy and healthy enough to produce this fall. The heat and dryness has been really hard on them, and the spider mites are creeping closer and closer.

Every year it is something, isn't it? I rarely have a year in which everything does great and usually am happy if half the garden produces as well in any given year as I had hoped it would.

I'm glad to hear the butter beans and melons are cooperating.

It is impossible to guess how differently your plants would have performed if y'all had had, let's say, 10" less rainfall year-to-date, than what you've had, but my best guess is that your plants would have been happier and more productive. If only it were possible to get the rainfall and the temperatures to behave the way we gardeners think that they should!

Dawn