[Anton]

Help please.  Runner beans I started off in pots are starting to look a bit woe begone.
See attached pictures.  About a week ago I noticed ants climbing on one of the plants, nothing excessive but still they were there. I killed them with my fingers and then started spraying them with a soap mixture . I discovered ants on some of the other plants but nothing excessive and on two plants there were a couple of black flies on the bottom side of the leaves, which I smudged with my finger. I have been doing this for the last few days. Removing ants or black fly manually and spraining.  And today, after missing a day going to the allotment, I see leaves starting to crinkle but no sign of ants and no signs of blackfly (I gave them all another spray. Any ideas please

[Hampshire Hog]

Sorry Anton no pictures attached. HH

[Anton]

Strange that. Can you see them now? Beans one shows the most affected plant.

[Hampshire Hog]

Thanks Anton I can see the beans now. Unfortunately i can’t see any reason for the crinkle. To be honest mine don’t look much better at present. Perhaps others can shed light. HH

[Aunt Sally]

I think they may have a virus.

I’ll have a google.

[Aunt Sally]

Could be this :

https://www.growveg.co.uk/plant-diseases/uk-and-europe/bean-mosaic-virus/

[Anton]

Thanks very much for all your efforts, all of you. I don't see any sign of green/yellow mottled leaves. I really hope its not the virus. I grew the beans in pots to start with.

I have another 16 plants already in pots. Can I replace the dodgy-looking plants with the ones in my pots, do you think?
Bit of a disappointment. I wrote to the seed suppliers to ask  what was the most productive runner bean and they recommended Proton. I have never planted this  before.

Last year's runner beans were a disappointment as well  but I thought it was because of the drought.

[Aunt Sally]

You can lose nothing by using the 16 plants you have.  Do let us know how the problem developers or resolves.

[Anton]

Thanks Sally, I will keep you all posted.

Anton

[Anton]

Back again. We had some heavy downpours since I last wrote that seems to have got rid of the blackflies and ants and the runner beans are shutting up, although the worst infested plant is the slowest to recover and is half the size of the others.