Bush beans (Phaseolus vulgarisL. C.V. Improved Tendergreen) were grown with amendments in a glasshouse in two different serpentine soils from California. These serpentine soils are not high in Ni and Cr as in other areas of the world and the purpose of the study was to define the reasons for low plant yields in these two soils. The two soils behaved very differently. One seemed to have simple P deficiency and a mild imbalance of Ca‐Mg. The other soil appeared to have a severe Ca deficiency, the correction of which tended to increase Mg uptake also, but with improved yields. Present also seemed to be Zn, Cu, Al, Ni toxicities even though the levels of each were not high by leaf analysis tests. Stepwise regression for plants from one of the soils indicated that Cu concentration in leaves accounted for 60% of the yield variation (negative correlation), that Ca accounted for 9% more of it, and that P accounted for 13% more for a total of 82%. In the presence of low levels of Ca, some, at least, of the trace metals were toxic and Cu was one.