Vegetable Gardening (48 page)

Mexican bean beetle:
This ladybug relative has an orange-yellow shell with 16 black spots on it. The adult beetles lay masses of orange eggs on the undersides of maturing bean plants. When the eggs hatch, the 1/3-inch, spiny yellow young that emerge feed on the bean leaves, defoliating the plant. To control these pests, do the following:

• Plant early maturing varieties that are finished producing before the bean beetles become plentiful.

• Crush any egg masses that you see.

• Clean up old bean plant debris where the plants
overwinter
(live throughout the winter).

• Spray the adult beetles with
pyrethrin
(a botanical insecticide made from pyrethrum flowers).

Rust:
If your plants have red or orange spots on their leaves and then they yellow and die, you may have rust disease. This fungal disease overwinters on bean plant debris left in the garden and infects new plants in summer when the weather is right (warm temperatures and high humidity). To prevent rust disease, clean up plant debris and till your garden in fall. The next growing season, rotate bean plantings to another section of the garden. Also, don't work in your garden when the leaves are wet; wet leaves provide the moisture that rust disease spores need to be able to spread.

Pesky pea problems

Peas don't have many disease or pest problems, but here are a few to watch out for:

Pea aphid:
These pear-shaped, 1/8-inch, green insects suck the juices from pea leaves and stems and can stunt a plant's growth and cause it to wilt. If your plants are severely affected by these insects, spray the plants with Safer's insecticidal soap.

Pea enation virus:
Pea enation virus is a particular problem for peas grown in the Pacific Northwest. The virus, which is spread by aphids (another reason to control the pest), causes plants' leaves and pods to be stunted and deformed. The best solution is to grow disease-resistant varieties such as ‘Cascadia'.

Keep on pickin': Harvesting your crop

As you probably know, when it comes to harvesting vegetables, timing is everything. Keep a close eye on your beans and peas as they start to mature and pick often. Beans and peas can get overmature, tough, and stringy quickly, especially in warm weather. Here's how to tell when the beans you've planted are ready for harvest:

You can harvest snap beans when the pods are firm and crisp and the seeds inside are undeveloped.
(If the pod is smooth and not bumpy, you know that the seeds haven't developed yet.) Carefully hold the bean stem with one hand and pull the individual beans off with your other hand to avoid breaking the plants.

The more beans you pick, the more you'll get. That's because the plant wants to produce mature seeds and you keep frustrating it by picking the pods. So be sure to harvest even if you're not going to eat all the beans immediately. Remember, you can always share your crop with hungry friends and family.

Harvest shell beans when the pods are full, green, and firm but haven't dried out yet.
You can store the beans in a refrigerator for a few days before cooking them.

Let dried bean pods dry on the plant until they naturally begin to split and then harvest them.
Break the bean seeds out of the pods by rubbing the pods in your hands, which shatters them. Store the beans in glass jars in a cool place; you can either eat them or save them to plant next year.

Peas lose quality quickly, so picking them when they're undermature rather than overmature is better. Also, try to cook them the same day; they turn starchy quickly if you keep them for more than 1 or 2 days. Here are some guidelines for harvesting peas:

You harvest English and snap peas when the pods are full and before they fade in color.
Upon harvesting snap peas, cut off the cap (stem end) of the pod and take the string (along the seam) out of the pod; these are the only two parts of the pod that are chewy.