Ceth, the plants looked very healthy at 25 days... so the question would be, what changed after that time? It sounds like bad weather is the most likely explanation for the chlorosis. Yardlongs thrive in heat & full sun, and plentiful moisture... as long as the soil is well drained. Cool nights & excessively cloudy days would slow them down. As a rule, beans don't need nitrogen, so I would avoid applying manure around them. Fresh manure, in particular, can cause root damage. Applying wood ashes directly to the soil around living plants is generally not a good idea. The ashes are highly alkaline, and can burn roots. But your observations make me wonder. Tropical soils are often acidic (low pH) and wood ashes would increase the soil pH. If you can test your soil pH, I would recommend doing so. Wood ashes in moderate amounts would help to neutralize acidity, but the best time to apply them would be to dig them in several weeks before planting, which would hopefully give them time to dissolve. I grow many different yardlongs here, most are varieties from Southeast Asia or the Philippines. Those that are not daylength sensitive generally do well for me. They only grow when the weather is warm, though; because of my short growing season, I can only harvest beans for a month or two. While I have been to Southeast Asia many times, and am familiar with your climate, I don't have experience gardening there... so that is the best advice I can offer.

Hi everyone. Peppers: Leave them alone. I used to hve trouble with them too and then last year I planted a zillion b/c I always have so much trouble with bell peppers. Well, I did not amend the soil this year and I really did not water as often. I think the biggie is that before I treated them like my tomatoes. I watered the same and fed the same. Last year it dawned on me that these are a southwest native. In other words, they LIKE a lot of heat and can be on the dry side. Let them be. Esp. if you are getting lots of lush foliage but not fruit. This means you are feeding too much or the bed is too rich. This was m exp. last year and when I planted zillions, I did not need that many. I still have baggies in the freezer of them. Carrots. I have trouble with them too. I can gro beats and radishes like a magazine picture. But for some reason my carrots don't tend to do much of anything. Last year I actually had long skinny root but they did not grow like supposed to. But that was better than previous years when they sprouted nd then went kaput.

Hmmm...Wasn't going to post for another couple months! lol But, CC#1 = $170.00 (maybe a bit less), & plans are to have it pd OFF by years' end. (I actually have till Jan '08 statement for the low rate to expire - which wouldn't be so detrimental due to the low balance) I hate the bank tho, and really wanted to pay it off sooner! But that didn't happen. CC#2 = Don't know exactly, but definately under $700.00. Next closing date is SOON. (I haven't been focusing so much on CC #'s 2 or 3, as they are fixed unless I default on ANY payment! - oh I don't like the sound of that 'clause') CC#3 = About $3150.00. AND...That "Oops!" CC bal is paid in full - YAY! (And I m SO patting myself on my back for THAT one! haha) PLUS, I paid our full mortgage payment(s) this month, plus about $150.00 over on 2nd. (YUP! I just couldn't pay minimum only. I want that 2nd paid OFF ASAP!) OH! AND...I started "paying myself first" last May - min 10%. BUT, after the first "pay myself", I decided to play "catch up" for the year, so I started paying myself 20% or whatever more I could. Also ran across an opportunity to lock in some CD's @ 5.45% APY - so I did that, and I trf'd some old 3 mo cd's into 6 mo cd's for the higher rate. They are in such a manner that I cannot easily get my hands on the money! LOL! So, basically, I'm living on the "below the edge of poor"! Christmas has been discussed, and we are going to do nothing except maybe take advantage of food sales, and IF we NEED something like thermals or sweats to keep warm, or a new battery for my trusty 18 yr old $2.00 hand calculator, or stuff to go into septic system... The ONLY gift we may buy is something for my Mother, which will probably be small $ amt gift certs for her favorite grocery stores or resturants (people from her church oft frequent places for Sunday lunch, and many times she doesn't go if it's expensive.) The GOOD thing is, we've had a sorta fairly mild summer. So, I've been able to use more $$ to pay towards bills. I have done some shifting on my pay plan to get CC #1 paid off (hopefully by years' end), and to get that "Oops" paid off. I've been SLAMMING on that #1 for awhile. (Sometimes it's a GOOD thing to hate a certain company - motivates ME to not give them any more $$$! LOL!) BUT, I'm going to have to slow down now, as winter is approaching - need to be prepared for those high heating costs for about 4 months! (We have heavy drapes, but bad windows! It gets SO cold here in winter, and I HATE the cold in my home!) I feel pretty good for now about my debt pay plan and how much I've paid off. I'm very impatient tho. I wanted more paid off SOONER. I've been obsessed with my bills and constantly reviewing them. (Sometimes 3 or 4 times a month lately - it's like I have a 'bulls-eye', and only one chance to hit it!) It's going to be hard to 'slow down' over the winter to adjust to high energy costs. We've already taken a big hit on less income in the household. We will adjust - at least for a short while. I will keep reviewing where we stand, and hopefully we will survive! IF it comes necessary to start digging into my pittance of savings, it's time for some serious decission making...(like I haven't already been thinking about that? Yes I HAVE!) For NOW, I need a big pat on my back for what I have accomplished! LOL! (I've a feeling next year is going to be even tougher than this!)

I think Patty your winters in Illinois may even beat our winters in Wisconsin with the cold. I've always used collars around my bushes and filled with initially soil, then the last number of years--leftover cedar mulch that was laying around my 12 bushes. I have one David Austin all by itself further back in the yard protected by a garage. That I just dumped mulch around it and patted it down. That one (Pat Austin) never enthralled me anyway--long spindly blooms that bowed over and didn't last & not many of them either. Sad to say, it wouldn't break my heart if it died. The other bushes are a mixed bunch. When we bought our home over 22 years ago, it came with about 13 bushes lining the South side of our brick home. I knew nothing about roses, but thought they were lovely and tried to glean as much as I could about roses over the years. Many of the original 13 died over the years, but I have some bushes still doing well from before we bought our home--maybe about 4 bushes. Some are probably about 10-15 years old, and others are newer. I planted a Dick Clark last beginning of June that bloomed and bloomed and bloomed--gorgeous tons of blooms. Also a Love Song that took its time blooming, but had a lot of gorgeous purply lavender blooms. The people who planted the original bushes I don't think knew all that much about roses because they planted them almost against the house. Being a novice, I did know they loved water, but did my watering in early-mid afternoon so I wouldn't encourage mold & blackspot. I used soaker hoses. I then learned by our contractor--have beautiful roses and ruin our basement or compromise. Again they never should have been planted almost touching the house. I now water when it is hot out, and when we don't get much rain. They do fine with that schedule. I also stopped putting topsoil (which someone told me to do) in the rose collars in the winters for protection. What started happening is the soil started to form a slight hill and was sloping downwards. I now use strictly the old cedar mulch to fill the collars with some healthy dried leaves.