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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 16, 2015 13:51:23 GMT -5
Will plants develop resistance to diseases and if so if a plant survives an attack of a virus, for example, will resistance be passed on to their offspring? Sort of like vaccination in people? It seems as though whenever a plant gets zapped, the usual response is either to pull it out or to spray it with something. I am trying to grow a bush bean under lights this winter and the plant came down with something that is probably some form of bean mosaic, there wasn't anything chewing at or eating it. I've been watching it as it struggled to put out beans ANYWAY and now new growth is happening, new healthy leaves are sprouting all over the plant. I'm wondering if the bean seed matures, if it will have a resistance to whatever it was that attacked it.
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Post by billw on Dec 16, 2015 15:13:25 GMT -5
Generally, no. Although there are some additional layers and complexities involved, plants don't have an immune system in the sense that animals do. They don't have antibodies or any sort of mobile immune response. Once a plant has been systemically infected with a virus, it generally cannot recover on its own. That doesn't mean that it is doomed though; most viruses don't actually kill the host and resistance may be very good in some varieties. Unlike many viruses, bean mosaic can be transmitted in seed and infected plants are likely to produce infected seed.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 16, 2015 15:38:01 GMT -5
that's interesting! so would probably be better to eat the beans then than to save seed and see if the babies do better..at least unless I can keep them well isolated as it is now. It's curious that this one is apparently recovering though, none of the new leaves so far are showing any sign of infection.Maybe it is a different virus..or maybe it just hits leaves once they get a certain size..I'm not up on bean diseases.
If that's the case then, not a lot of point in hanging on with it.. will toss it and start over with fresh seed in fresh soil in a clean pot, Thank you
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andyb
gardener
Posts: 179
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Post by andyb on Dec 16, 2015 23:59:28 GMT -5
Have you considered nutrient problems rather than disease? I was just growing some beans in pots under lights over the last few months, watering with a liquid fertilizer. The leave started looking bad, so I did some googling and found images of bean plants with iron and magnesium deficiencies that looked like my plants. The fertilizer I was using had plenty of iron and magnesium, but there are apparently other things that prevent their absorption. Three possible causes I read about were soil that was is too wet, soil that is too acidic, and an excess of phosphorous.
The control, which I carefully checked for overly wet soil, slowly got worse. The one watered with a bit of baking soda quickly got worse. The one I watered with a low-phosphorous fertilizer perked up after a week or so.
The fertilizer I was originally using was a 10-15-10, and the phosphorous was apparently accumulating in the soil. Kind of a fun experiment!
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 17, 2015 9:43:36 GMT -5
Cool! I had looked at what I found on the internet and none of the deficiencies described the symptoms..I wondered if somehow the soil had got contaminated as it's been sitting outside for a year (in the bag but the bag was ripped). But I transplanted a pepper into the same soil as an experiment and it's thriving so that seems not to be the case. What bean did you grow and how did they produce? This patient of mine is pretty feeble, it's only got about 4 pods it's trying to grow out..I think I am going to put it out of its misery. I use a seaweed fertilizer, well diluted. Smells horrible.
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andyb
gardener
Posts: 179
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Post by andyb on Dec 18, 2015 0:23:22 GMT -5
I grew Golden Gaucho, Black Coco, and Calypso bush beans. Two plants per one-gallon pot. I also had a couple of pots with Scarlet Runner and Moldovanesti Buffalo Runner Beans. The Runner beans didn't do too well either, but had different symptoms. I suspect nutrient deficiencies as well. After it was too late, I found the instruction manual for ARS/USDA people doing greenhouse growouts of their bean collection. OPERATIONS MANUAL** for the Phaseolus Germplasm Collection (ars.usda.gov). I think I'll follow their procedure pretty closely next time. As an experiment, you might want to try a high-nitrogen fertilizer. A quick google on seaweed fertilizer gives variable results, but all seem to be pretty low in nitrogen.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jan 5, 2016 0:04:16 GMT -5
Hmm hadn't thought to worry about nitrogen fertilizer because well. because they are beans. I started some very old Scarlet Runners a couple of years ago to see if the seed was still viable and they tried to take over the house as I started them way too early to be able to put them in the garden. Dumb, obviously, but was pretty sure they wouldn't still be viable, they were probably at least 10 years old and had been in less than optimum storage. They didn't get any fertilizer at all. I ended up giving them away to anyone who would give them house room, and as far as I know they all grew like gangbusters, and eventually moved into various gardens without a hiccup.
At least these ones were bush beans... Anyway, I threw them out, they didn't look as though they were ever going to pay their way. I was just curious if there was any point in trying to develop resistance to whatever by letting them struggle. Since apparently not, out they go. Too many choices to put up with a veggie prima donna.
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Post by steev on Jan 5, 2016 0:56:57 GMT -5
There you go! Sometimes trying to breed a teacup poodle into a real dog is just more than one has the time for.
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andyb
gardener
Posts: 179
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Post by andyb on Jan 5, 2016 2:20:06 GMT -5
I forgot to ask before, but what varieties did you try to grow?
Your story about the runner beans reminded me that they're grown as a perennial in a lot of their original range. I'd never thought of using them as a houseplant but I imagine they might do pretty well. Maybe one of the bush types so they wouldn't take over the house.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jan 12, 2016 14:42:30 GMT -5
The variety that got tossed was Tanya's Purple Pod. To be fair, I got the seed in a swap so it may well have been old seed and was just beyond the ability or interest to cope with things. The idea with the Scarlet Runners wasn't to use them as a house plant, really, I honestly didn't think they would germinate. If you want a houseplant that will grow 6 feet high in a week or so go for it. Light for that sort of growth outside of a greenhouse is a bit scarce, especially with our short days in winter, so they were a bit scrawny stretching for the light until I could make better arrangements.
Never learn though, last winter tried to start 3 sweet potatoes to see if it was as easy as advertised and THEY ended up trying to take over, turned into a set of monsters. I was eating the leaves and shoots ( could have done that with the beans too, but didn't know it at the time) and still having a hard time keeping up, one potato gave at least 20 slips and showed no sign of slowing down.They took up a whole lot of space under the growlights (at least learned THAT much from the beans fiasco!) that had been intended for other things. Unfortunately they all got nailed by a late hard week long frost the second week in June when I was out of town so I lost them, which was a bit upsetting as at least one was a bush sweet potato and I really really wanted to keep that one going. Getting named sweet potato slips is a challenge in Canada and expensive when you do find them, starting them from a tuber is so quick and easy it's hard to justify the hassle of doing it otherwise.
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