They make some support things that you stick in the ground that are half circles. My wife uses them for her gladiolus. If you were to take 2 of these and create a full circle, they'd make a good support. Or, a more primative approach would be to stick 4 stakes or bamboo sticks in the ground, and span some twine between them. Just don't use any string or wire that would cut into the stems. Here is a link to the half circle supports I was talking about. We got ours at a big box store, but I figured I post this link so you know what I'm talking about. http://www.gardeners.com/Jardin-Half-Round-Flower-Supports/FlowerGardening_New,39-523RS,default,cp.html?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&utm_term=jardin_plant_support&SC=XNET8019&gclid=CLHsnpanjKoCFYZrKgodYi8yzg You can also do a google search of "jardin plant support". Joe

a fungal or rot issue... damping off, which is really just what gardeners say when seedlings die for some reason or another. it might be too early for beans, or you might just need to keep planting beans until you have enough healthy plants. (i have to do this often with beans.) one thing to try is different varieties--maccaslan and rattlesnake are two that have done well for me and have been bred for southern growing. they have good disease resistance and don't normally die off on me. a trick: take a stryo cup, rip off the lower 1/3. half-bury it in the soil. fill it with peat moss. plant the seed in the cup. that's how i end up growing some things in late summer that, like beans, require direct sowing.

Well, this is actually more common than you think, so don't feel silly or like you have somehow "failed". You just have to figure out what is eating your green beans and then deal with that particular pest or pests. And, remember that, depending on your age, your grandparents MAY HAVE BEEN more prone to use chemical pesticides than many of us use nowadays. If you are in the Oklahoma City area, could I correctly assume that your yard, or at least the garden, is fenced in and that cottontail rabbits are NOT a problem for you? Because, here in southern OK in a rural area, rabbits are my biggest green bean pest. If your garden is not fenced in with wire fencing small enough to keep rabbits and voles from getting the beans, they could be the culprits. It most likely is insects and there are many that like to nibble on bean plants. Later on, after you get your bean plants established and they are producing beans, there will be a whole different batch of bugs that like to eat beans. Understand that, if you have a vegetable garden, you will ALWAYS have insects, bugs and other pests who want to eat your veggies and there are no quick fixes. ORGANIC VS. NON-ORGANIC OPTIONS: I don't know if you are gardening organically, using only natural pest control methods, or if you garden non-organically and don't mind using chemicals. So, I'll try to address the pest issue both ways, but I am mostly organic myself and am not necessarily current on the names of the mostly recently developed and marketed chemical pesticides. IDENTIFYING THE PEST: CUT WORMS: If your beans are being cut off at the ground level, it could be cutworms. Here in the south, we have two kinds of cut worms. One of them cuts off the plants at or just below ground level and the other can climb as high as an inch or so and cut off the plants. Both cut off the plants by working their way all around the stem. You can thwart them by sticking a twig, toothpick, ice cream stick, bamboo shish kabob skewers (I break them in half since they are so tall) or something similar into the ground RIGHT NEXT to the bean plant stem that comes up out of the ground. I use two...one on either side, and have them extend at least an inch into the soil. ROLY POLY BUGS AND SNAILS AND SLUGS: Check your soil, mulch, etc. for pill bugs or sow bugs. They are one of the pests in my garden that used to give me lots of trouble and they love, love, love green bean plants. If you have a lot of pill bugs and sow bugs (roly-poly bugs), they often are the culprit doing the destruction, especially this early in the season. There are several ways to combat them. I've mentioned snails and slugs here because they eat lots of plants too, although I seldom see them here in southern OK. They may be more plentiful in other parts of the state, and the baits I mention for sow and pill bugs kill snails and slugs as well. My favorite is an organic snail and slug bait that has iron phosphate as the main ingredient. It is sold under several different names, including Slug-Go!, Escar-Go!, Organic Snail and Slug Killer, etc. It is NOT the commonly sold chemical snail and slug killer that has metaldahyde as its' active ingredient. Metaldahyde is a very dangerous chemical and I would never use it, especially since I have pets, as it is very toxic to pets. Please note that the organic, iron-phosphate products are NOT labeled for us on pill bugs and sow bugs, only snails and slugs. However, organic users who use these iron phosphate products have known for a long time that they not only control snails and slugs, but sow bugs and pill bugs as well. I have used it for several years with great success. It is my understanging that the makers of Slug-Go! have a new Slug-Go Plus on the market that is labeled for use on pill and sow bugs, but I haven't seen it yet, haven't used it, and don't know what changes they have made to the original product. You also can keep pill bugs and sow bugs off of plants by surrounding each plant with a small ring of any of the following: bone meal, colloidal phosphate, wood ashes or diatomaceous earth. Or, you can scatter/dust any of the following on the soil around the green bean plants: cedar flakes, hot pepper, or natural diatomaceous earth (with no added ingredients). MISCELLANEOUS CHEWING INSECTS: There are a variety of other medium to large-sized insects that could be eating your plants. Are you seeing any insects in and around the garden? There are to be some sort of clues. For example, if you are seeing grasshoppers around the yard or garden, they might be the culprit. (If so, Nolo Bait is the best treatment for them.) In general, though, you can dust the plants with natural diatomaceous earth and that usually helps with many types of pests. NON-ORGANIC CONTROLS: If I had something eating my plants and wasn't able to diagnose just what it was, and using a chemical control was an option, I'd probably go with something that has relatively low toxicity to humans, like Sevin Dust. You just shake it onto your plants. Be sure to read and follow all label directions. Hope this info helps. And, for what it is worth, the first planting of my green beans usually has the worst problems. I think it is because there are not a lot of other green plants to chew on early in spring. Later plantings have less trouble in the earliest stages, but more trouble with bean beetles and other pests. Dawn

Kaity, In all honesty, I am not so sure your results with a fall planting will be any more successful than your spring planting this year, so I encourage you to think about how a fall planting is likely to perform if the weather for the next 6 to 8 weeks continues along in basically the same pattern we've had for the last 6 weeks or so. The OSU-recommended planting dates for snap beans for the fall garden are: Pole Beans July 15th - July 30th Bush Beans Aug 10th - Aug 20th To use these dates as OSU intended, you should know that the earlier dates are for folks in northern OK in the fall, and the later dates are for folks in southern OK in the fall. (In the spring it is the exact opposite.) Consider too that research has shown that every type of seed has soil temperatures at which it will or won't germinate well. With beans, the best soil temperature for them is 77 degrees. At that temperature, 97% of your bean seeds will germinate and they'll do so in an average of 8 days. If your soil temperature is 86 degrees, you'll get slightly faster germination--just 6 days, but only 47% of your bean seed will germinate. And, if your soil is a toasty 95 degrees, you'll get germination in 6 days as well, but only 39% of your seeds will germinate. If your soil temperature is 104 degrees or hotter, you'll get 0% germination. You can figure out your average soil temperature by using a thermometer with a probe (like a standard kitcen meat thermometer). Take the temperature of bare soil during midafternoon when temps are highest and take it about 2" below grade level. Record your soil's temperature for 3 to 5 days and average together the results. If the soil temp is higher than is ideal, you might want to find some way to increase your seed's chance of germinating, like germinating them inside in damp paper towels, for example, and then planting them out into the ground as soon as they sprout in the paper towel. Or, you could plant them in the ground and temporarily shade the ground with sheets or shade cloth to help keep it cooler, which could help give you better germination. If you are planting them in the ground into soil that is pretty hot, you need to plant more seeds than usual to make up for the significantly lower germination rates. Are you seeing many grasshoppers in your area? Grasshoppers love to eat bean plants, especially in July and August when there's not a lot of green around. You may need to protect your young bean plants from the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers this year are bad here where I live, but not as bad as they were last year when they stripped all my bean plants down to naked stalks in July and August. Finally, green beans grow and produce best when air temperatures are in the 70s, so since those air temps are a long way off, especially in this hotter-than-average year, try to time your plantings so your plants will be blooming when temps are in the 70s. Accomplishing this is always tricky with fall beans, and I expect it will be trickier than usual this year. You might look at your soil temps, look at your OSU-recommended dates, and choose to plant a week later than OSU says in order to let the air cool down a little more. The problem with waiting a little bit is that you have that inevitable first frost looming in mid-autumn. I'm not saying "don't plant beans" but rather consider all the factors that go into getting a successful stand of beans and decide if it is worth it. If you choose to plant them, you're going to have to work really hard to offset the negative effects of this year's terrible heat and drought conditions. I'm going to link one of the soil temperature maps from the OK Mesonet for you. You can look at the average soil temps in your area and it will give you some idea of what to expect in your own garden. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Bare Soil Temp at 2