Bean plants are a staple crop for many vegetable gardens thanks to their ability to fix nitrogen levels in the soil. To grow beans successfully, your plants need the three base nutrients for all plants nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which your crops get after using a homemade fertilizer for beans.
In addition to the essential nutrients, green beans need calcium, iron, and manganese in smaller amounts to thrive. These nutrients are readily found in garden soil if amended with compost or manure before planting. However, if your soil lacks the proper nutrients for healthy plant growth, the signs of a nutrient deficiency may show quickly depending on the type of beans planted.
Because bush beans and pole beans mature quickly, signs that your plants lack essential nutrients become readily apparent. Young leaves of plants lacking manganese and iron become pale green or yellow between the veins. If bean plants lack sufficient iron, it stunts plant growth, resulting in a bushy appearance with small or misshapen leaves.
Benefits of Organic Bean Plant Fertilizer
Compared to synthetic fertilizer, homemade natural fertilizer is more cost-effective as gardeners create it using organic matter. Homemade plant food does not run off in the soil after watering like granular fertilizers and poses no environmental risk like chemical fertilizers.
Certain beans can also be grown to become healthy fertilizer. You can grow bean sprouts at home for your compost pile. Bean sprouts are known to be used as a fertilizer booster, they even add nutrients to the soil they’re grown in.
How to Fertilize Beans with Wood Ash
The ash that remains in your fireplace after burning wood is a surprising source of nutrition for your garden, and is effective at fertilizing beans and providing potassium and other trace elements. Potassium is essential to plant growth because it helps plants move water through their tissue and helps with bean production.
Discover how to fertilize beans with ash. The best way to include wood ash in your garden is through a light sprinkling over the soil or compost. Adding too many ashes causes a build-up of lye and salt in the soil, which leads to plant burning. Composting your ashes before adding them to the garden removes salt and lye.
The best wood ash to use in the garden comes from burning hardwoods like maple and oak. Hardwoods allow you to add more nutrients to your soil, while woods like pine.
Organic Bean Plant Fertilizer Using Yard Debris
Your yard is the best place to look for material to create an organic bean plant fertilizer. Fallen leaves, grass clippings, and even weeds are plentiful sources of nitrogen that your green beans need.
When it comes to lawn care, many leave cut grass or leaves in the yard to decompose naturally, but collecting organic materials is a simple way to create the best fertilizer for bean plants.
One way to use weeds and grass clippings as fertilizer is to till them into the soil so they decompose and leave nutrients behind. Your garden also benefits from having organic mulch this way. To better use these materials, soak them in water to create a liquid fertilizer.
Measure out debris by the pound and place it in a large bucket with a lid. Add eight cups of water for every pound of grass clippings, leaves, or weeds. After filling the bucket, close it with the lid and leave it to sit for two weeks. Strain the solids and use the remaining liquid nitrogen fertilizer to water your beans and indoor plants.
Making Tea for Bean Plant Growth
If composting is already part of your routine or you raise livestock, you already have the essential ingredients to create organic fertilizer for plants like lima beans and fava beans. Soak compost or manure in water to make a DIY fertilizer for beans.
Compost is perfect for amending soil because of the abundant nutrients generated in the decomposition process. Manure, specifically chicken manure, is an excellent fertilizer for bean plants. Since all black beans grow in bushes, the soil that they grow in needs to have optimal amounts of nutrients.
Because a chicken’s diet consists of vegetables, fruit, and seed meal, there is no risk of their manure burning your plants like the waste from meat-eating animals.
Use a pillowcase to line a five-gallon bucket and fill the bucket two-thirds with water. Add compost or manure to fill the bucket the rest of the way before closing it with a lid and letting it steep for two days. Stir the bucket contents once or twice a day.
Pull the pillowcase out of the bucket to strain all the liquid. Dilute the compost/manure tea with more water until it becomes a pale brown color. Treat your bean plants and new fruit trees with your manure or compost tea fertilizer once a week.
Egg Shell Homemade Fertilizer for Beans
Although we may not think of eggshells as being nutritious, eggshells are mostly calcium which plants love for producing bean pods. If your bean plants lack calcium, their leaves develop white spots and become necrotic over time.
Use crushed eggshells to make an organic bean plant fertilizer to use the nutrients in shells in your garden or boil the shells to make a liquid fertilizer.
Save and dry at least ten shells to start making bean plant fertilizer. Crush the eggshells by placing them in a bag and smashing them with a rolling pin. Boil water in a pot and place your shells inside for five minutes.
Remove the shells from the heat and allow them to cool before dividing the water into containers. Leave the water for two days before straining the shells out to use the water in the garden.
Note: Add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to pull nitrogen from the shells during the boiling process.
How to Use Banana Peels for Snap Beans
Bananas are likely the easiest source of potassium for humans, and banana peels provide the same benefit for your plants. Bean plants that lack enough potassium develop discolored patches between their veins, and leaves start to curl downward.
To ensure your bean plants have enough potassium in the soil for healthy growth, cut banana peels and bury them in the dirt around developing plants. The peels also work when added to the planting hole when sowing seeds. Over time these peels decompose to allow your plants to absorb the potassium.
Epsom Salt as Fertilizer
While not technically a salt, Epsom salt or magnesium sulfate used in the garden supplements nutrient deficiencies. A lack of magnesium causes stunted plant growth and pale curly leaves. The easiest way to fix a deficiency is by creating a foliar spray.
Fill a tank sprayer with water and Epsom salt and mix. Use the spray directly on your plant’s leaves to allow the plant to absorb the nutrients quickly.
Although commercial fertilizers may seem like the easiest way to improve the quality of your crops, organic fertilizer is the better option for your garden and the environment.
Making bean plant food at home is simple and highly rewarding as your efforts to fertilize your garden organically can last for many growing seasons. By growing healthy beans, you allow nearby plants to receive a boost in nitrogen and create a better vegetable garden.
If this clever guide helped you learn how to make homemade fertilizer for beans, please share our tips on how to fertilize beans with your gardening friends on Facebook and Pinterest.