best guess is curly top virus. just my best guess.

Each pod has a seam, which runs top and bottom from the stem to the tip of the bean. In a true string bean that seam has a fiber which runs along the top and bottom seam. It is literally like a little string. if you fail to get rid of it, you will be pulling it out of your mouth when you eat that bean, as it does not chew up very well. True string beans have almost all their fiber along the seams of the pods. It's as if the bean plant localizes all that tough fiber into the seam of the pods, leaving the rest of the pod exceptionally tender, when it begins to age, rather than becoming tough and fiberous. So the advantage of the tender podded bean is that you can eat and enjoy it when it is much older than a normal modern variety. In parts of the South, it is traditional to let the seeds fill out before picking and cooking string beans. This results in a pot of pods and shelly beans, all mixed together. The disadvantage of the string bean, is that you have to string it, which takes a little extra time. Barksdale Wax is a tender podded bean, just like so many string beans. But it never has any strings either. More common snaps are stringless, but their pods develop tough fiber in them when they are maturing their seed. This is not to say that a stringless (or tough podded bean, as I would sometimes say) is a tough bean. It can be succulent when young. But it won't be tender when the seed in its pods is maturing. George

Carol, I have grown Roma II many times. It is sort of the romano bean equivalent of Better Boy or Celebrity tomato---a good, reliable, heavy producer. I usually grow it every year because it is easy to squeeze a row of bush beans into a little bit of space here or there. I don't get very good yields from most yellow beans, but the exception is a yellow roma called Marvel of Venice, which was one of our heaviest producers as a fall bean in 2009. Seedmama, My peas are up about a foot and climbing the trellis just fine, but the recent temperatures in the mid-80s were really hard on them and starting browning/yellowing their foliage. Now that the temps are slightly cooler, the beans seem to be recovering from the heat wave. I hope it stays a bit cooler for a while so the peas get a chance to produce this year. If you're going to be at the Spring Fling, I can bring you some flat bean seed to try.... Jay, Where in the world are you going to put all those beans? Should the horses be worried? Annieokie, You can start planting beans any time now. I think the Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide specifies April 10th-30th and beyond. You can plant succession crops for several weeks, but bean production will drop off a bit when the really hot weather hits. Last year, I planted fall beans in August and was harvesting beans through November. The only beans I have in the ground are Top Crop bush beans, planted earlier this week in our granddaughter's Peter Rabbit garden (with plants chosen because they're mentioned in the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit book, so simple things like beans, peas, lettuce, rosemary, onions, strawberries, potatoes, etc.). Her beans are up and have their 2 seed leaves open and I think she'll have her first true leaves any time now. With the warm days, the beans popped up almost overnight. I'll probably start planting beans next week... Carol, I'm going to try that recipe this year if I can manage to find it again when I am picking beans. I think after last night that I shouldn't have to carry flats in and out any more. I can't believe we went down to 33 degrees here....but that's what happens when you're down low in the valley. My forecast looks good, long-term, and we're 10 days past our average last frost date here, so I believe I am going to go wild planting, beginning today. The tomato plants are getting huge and I need to get them into the ground in the next 3 or 4 days, and then I'll work on the ones for containers next week. After that, I'll repot the remaining ones into larger cups and save them for the Spring Fling, which is getting closer and closer. I know I'll be planting like a maniac for the next week at least, but I'm just thrilled the ground is finally dry enough for planting (more or less...there's still a few really wet spots), it is finally warm enough, and the weather looks perfect, if a bit windy, for the next 4 or 5 days. Carol, you are a fine gardener, even if your plant addiction is a more recent affliction for you than for some of us. I'd put your plant and seed addiction right alongside mine and your gardening ability as well, and you can blame the plant and seed addiction on your proximity to Baker Creek if you want. lol I have been wondering how long it will be before you offer to "help" your son and daughter-in-law put in their/your garden on their new place. I've decided I'm not happy in the spring unless I'm growing a bit of everything and have far more plants than space in which to plant them, and I think you are just like me in that regard. Jay, if they had an edit feature on this forum, those of us who grow "too much" would never stop adding to our lists in the same way we never stop adding to our gardens. Stil, there are times an edit feature would be nice. Dawn

For sweet peppers we've grown lunchbox for years ... we grow them in pots and bring them inside come frost/freeze (there's usually a few trips in and out for early cold, sometimes they can just go to the porch and be covered for those), and then they live out the winter in the house, and if they make it through producing well, then back out they go in the spring. They're tasty and thin-walled (but that works well in a little pepper). 'Yummy' and 'Tweety' were some other ones we really liked. I don't know why we stopped growing 'Tweety'; we might have decided we didn't like the shape much (rounder) or it might have been an availability thing. I got 'Yum-yum' seeds for this year, which I'm hoping are pretty much the same as 'Yummy.' I've had generally good results from Antohi sweet frying pepper plants, too ... except last year's poor plant that got broken by an attacking tomato plant and succumbed to its injuries. Antohi is nice because it's a little bigger than the lunchboxes, but still not hot but flavorful and thin-walled. For tomatoes, we've got pretty much a new lineup for this year, so we'll see on those, but 'Sunpeach' and 'Striped/Speckled Roman" are getting to repeat. We've tried a number of different cherry/grape/pear tomatoes, and they're often different, so getting to repeat is high marks for 'Sunpeach;' it's lower acid, thin-skinned, well flavored, and a nice eating side. 'Striped Roman' (sometimes called 'Speckled Roman') is a paste, and it's been repeated a couple years now and is on the list again for this year; San Marzano did well before for us, too, and might come back too (if we can figure out a spot for one). 'Sunpeach' is from seed; 'Striped Roman' we usually buy as a plant, but I'm sure seeds are available somewhere. Lettuce I've taken to growing in my Aerogarden ... it's easy to grab and doesn't have temperature concerns (I'm bad about keeping it fed on time, so one can still have great results even if not perfect at noticing the two week feeding reminder light. Just make sure it doesn't go dry.)