UC Dry Bean Blog

A little over a month ago, I visited some contiguous garbanzo bean fields in southern San Joaquin County, at the request of the grower. The grower observed that plants were yellowing and dying (Fig. 1) and wondered what might be causing the problem.

The Insect and Mite sections of the UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines for Dry Beans have been recently revised and updated and are now available online at: UC IPM Dry Beans Pest Management Guidelines. Authors include UCCE Farm Advisor Rachael Long and UC IPM Advisor Pete Goodell (emeritus).

UC Davis Agronomy Farm Directions: In the field across from the UC Davis Bee Biology Lab (same place as previous years). From Hwy 113 in Davis, exit on Hutchison Dr. Go west, turn north at the first roundabout, then west at the second roundabout. Continue west on Hutchison Dr for about 1 mile.

A baby lima bean field in the Sacramento Valley was recently found to be infected with southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii), a fungal pathogen that's found in many crops. The field was double-cropped with barley and planted late June.

I visited a lima bean field in the Delta at the beginning of June. The beans were showing what appeared to be dampening off symptoms (Figure 1), and dying plants were leaving large gaps down the rows. The problem was pretty widespread throughout the field.