How to get fertilisation of your bean crop right

Providing the correct nitrogen stimulus when growing beans is vitally important for achieving top yields

- Bill Kerr.

It amazes me how often I get asked which fertiliser is required for each vegetable type. This basically ignores the fact that there is already fertiliser in the soil, otherwise weeds would not be able to grow without you applying fertiliser to the crop.

Many of the soil minerals are not readily leached and would be in the soil naturally or as a residue from previous crops. You need to determine how much is already in the soil, and this is done by means of a soil analysis.

Nitrogen is the regulator. Too much with a bean crop will greatly reduce the yield by stimulating leaf growth in favour of pod production, and too little nitrogen will also reduce the yield.