This is just a brief note, to the effect that some varieties of green beans (snap beans) don’t like high nighttime temperatures when they are flowering. Anything consistently above 68 F can lead to reduced yield, depending on the variety.
First they came for my tomatoes
I already knew first-hand that tomatoes don’t like hot nights. It is well-known that consistent nighttime temperatures above 70 F (or maybe 72, depends on whom you believe) will prevent many varieties from beginning the ripening process. So you end up with green tomatoes that won’t ripen.
We had such an episode, in this area, in 2020.
We just got through another episode of high nighttime temperatures this year. It wasn’t as consistent as the 2020 stretch, but a lot of nights this month, the temperature has stayed above 70 F.
Source: Weather Underground.
Coincidence or not, the yield from my green bean plants has dropped off. This is unlike prior years, where they were steady producers for most of the summer. Now they’ve dropped off the point where I’ve been wondering whether I should cut those down and re-plant.
Turns out, some varieties of green beans are quite sensitive to the heat. They tend to produce commercially-unusable beans when nighttime temperatures exceed 68 F (reference).
The upshot is:
- I’m going to wait a bit, and see of these beans bounce back. They are otherwise healthy.
- I guess I’m going to start looking for heat-tolerant green beans. Summer nights won’t be getting colder around here for a long, long time.
