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Vegetable Gardening Beans, Peas & Legumes

Something wrecking my edamame plants

pjgooch51 (Long Island, 7B)

2 years ago

Anyone have any ideas about what might be destroying my edamame plants? Pictured below is all that remains of 6 healthy Midori Giant plants in a pot -- over the last 2 weeks or so, four plants have lost their leaves down to the bare stem seemingly overnight, some with pieces of broken stems left scattered below.

This morning I went outside to find one of the two remaining intact plants essentially decapitated -- the entire fully leafed top half left on the ground beside the pot as though cut or snapped off across the main stem.

There has been some normal leaf damage that looks like beetles but I doubt bugs or beetles remove and devour entire stems so quickly. (I've gone out at night to check for them but haven't seen any.) Deer are not an issue here. I have rabbits in the yard but I've never once seen them bother with anything in pots or 3-4' off the ground.

Is there another pest or pests that do this kind of extensive damage to bean plants? Can Midori Giant plants get top-heavy enough to topple over and snap from wind gusts? I can't figure out where the damage is coming from.

Comments (6)

pjgooch51 (Long Island, 7B)
Original Author
2 years ago
Pot with one remaining plant
pjgooch51 (Long Island, 7B)
Original Author
2 years ago
This morning's decapitated plant
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Thanks a lot all for the useful info.... Just a bit of a background, i have been in Kenya and India into gardening from when i was a kid and this is the first time this kind of a damage early in the lifecycle :) we had lots of frogs and toads that eat all these little buggers and may be that's why i haven't noticed them. And now after 10 years in England, I recently moved to a house with a garden from living in a flat and my gardening interest sprung back into action :) Ken: this is not the only one, had loads that i picked up and dunked in soap water every night on a daily night patrol with a torch light :) and i knew these were not slugs as the Google images were different and lucky got this forum to get the info. Also have roses and Lavender and this one has even chewed a couple of tender lavender stems too, have heard most pests don't touch lavender for the strong scent they have. Will definitely be starting again, but based on the numbers i have seen i guess i need some kind of a control before it gets out of hand as its becoming a bit tedious to do the night rounds. The beds were all newly built and filled with compost and top soil from the shop, may be the eggs were in the compost....
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zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
2 years ago
Assuming that deer (which would be my first guess with that type of damage) are positively not present, my next best guess would be a ground hog. A rabbit is also the possible culprit, if the pot is low enough for them to reach to the level of the damage. I would suggest running a chicken wire fence around that pot - if you intend to actually get some soybeans.

As a soybean collector, I can tell you that soybeans are like chocolate to all herbivores. Even if you never had animal damage in the garden before, animals will pass by (almost) everything else to eat soybeans (and will eventually eat them to the ground). I never had serious damage to my unfenced vegetable garden, until I began growing soybeans. At that point I found it necessary to either give up soybeans (which I won't do) or to have high fencing (for deer) and chicken wire at the bottom (for rabbits & ground hogs). Ground hogs can either climb over or dig under any fence, but there would be signs of their digging, and probably a burrow nearby. They are the only herbivore which can't be easily fenced out, so if that turns out to be the problem, a trap may be the only remedy.
Алефтина Петрова
2 years ago
Vertical farming, is a form of growing plants in trays. Thanks to the latest innovations in indoor growing equipment, the percentage of dead plants is reduced to an almost minimum and thus allows consumers to get excellent plants. And thanks to the latest innovations in indoor growing equipment, such as flexible air ducts like the one here, safety and reliability are increased
PRO
Green plants
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
There are several reasons why plants become infested. It is often the case that plants are taken outside, on an open veranda or balcony during the warm season. There are quite a few ways to infest plants. I know of only a few pests that can do so much damage to your plant, it can be a scab or whitefly. It is very difficult to protect your plants. Personally, I equipped my garage with terra-bloom air ducts and now the plants live pest free.
zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
2 years ago
Perhaps take a look at the photo? The soybeans were not "infested" - they were eaten.

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