FULL OF BEANS!

Keen to cultivate a nitrogen-rich soil, Jacob Shooter sows a large plot of field beans and reaps a plentiful crop too

Many keen readers of KG magazine may remember that last year I grew wheat on my allotment plot in order to make my own flour for bread. Well, this year I have been growing winter field beans on the same plot. Here's how I got on.

Now, I imagine you're wondering why I decided to grow field beans. Well, the crop I really want to grow is wheat, and in order to get a high enough protein content in the grain for making good bread, the wheat requires lots of nitrogen. Beans are well known for fixing nitrogen in the soil, so they seemed the logical answer as an environmentally friendly way of providing lots of the nitrogen that the wheat will require.

Although the beans may not provide enough residual nitrogen to grow wheat to a milling specification with the correct amount of protein content, I hope the beans will at least reduce the amount of fertiliser I need to use. In this case, the fertiliser will be applied as a foliar spray to the growing crop in the spring, as this is the most efficient. I can also make use of a leaf tester, which clamps around the leaf and reads out how much extra nitrogen needs to be applied to reach milling specifications. This helps prevent excess fertiliser being applied to the crop which is not required and will mean I can make use of any residual nitrogen left by the beans.

As well as this, it is important to rotate crops to help prevent the build-up of pests and diseases, as well as reduce the impact of mining the soil of particular nutrients season after season for the same crops. Therefore, this year I grew the wheat on my other half plot and chose to plant the full plot with beans.