How To Compost Beans: A complete guide

Nowadays, composting has become an essential life-saving technique for plants. Composting has become necessary for professional farmers associated with agriculture to individuals associated with household kitchen gardens.

For every person or group, who has an urge to grow healthy plants, bearing large fruits and flowers, composting comes to help. It is an easy technique that anyone can use, with just some ingredients in hand and precautions in mind.

Why Is There a Need to Compost Beans?

We all know that many sources are threatening Earth with each passing day, and the greenhouse gases are making the planet warmer every day with degrees of temperature. Composting beans aid in green living and a sustainable environment to rescue this problem.

• Less or no litter:

As per a survey done in 2015, the total amount of dumped material in the USA was around 37 million tons, a considerable value. We can not even easily imagine the world’s litter being produced, and it’s undoubtedly a significant number. So, to solve this issue, composting can be helpful.

• Biodegradable material to organic fertilizer:

Every day, in the quest for survival, many biodegradable pieces of stuff go unused, which is the thing to worry about.

This matter of trouble can be resolved by bean composting as all the useful biodegradable products like beans will aid in composting. Later, it will be used as an organic fertilizer.

• No methane emulsions:

When bacteria act on any leftover without oxygen, some harmful, toxic, and poisonous gases evolve. One of them is named methane, and it is the most significant cause of the temperature rise.

During composting beans, the natural oxygen in the environment is used, which helps in aerobic respiration, and the bacteria acting on leftovers produce no methane. Hence, it is an eco-friendly measure to save our environment.

Best Variety of Beans to be Composted in America

• Pinto beans found in Mexico are used for their mild essence and decent taste in their cuisine. It has a soft tint that provides a base that is not acidic. For its appearance, it accounts for clear and bold colors. Hence, these beans make an essential source of compost.

Those beans which are not fresh can lead to sprouting. So, to prevent this, always submerge them overnight and then allow them to get minced in a blender before being composted.

At times, there is a lot of cooked leftover present in our fridges which remains uneaten. One can use these leftover beans to compost, too.

If the beans were cooked with some dairy products, tomatoes, or meat items, they should be totally avoided because meat and lactose products can become an uncalled invitation to attract pests.

It will then spoil your compost. On the other hand, tomatoes lead to the phenomenon of sprouting, where they are added as manure. Therefore, Pinto beans make great compost if used with some precautions.

Procedure to Compost Beans

1. Choose a geographically leveled ground:

The first step to compost beans is the selection of a site. Keep in mind that the ground should be dry, flat, and level before starting this process. Also, try to choose a place that is situated far away from the action of insects, pests, and rodents; otherwise, the pathogens may invade the site by destroying the growing compost.

The place should be easily reachable by you to keep a check over it to avoid leaching of the essential nutrients and to provide moisture on a rainy day and a sunny day, respectively.

Also, use a shelter near the leveled surface to avoid water percolation on a rainy day in monsoons. After fulfilling these conditions, you are good to go towards the second step.

2. Opt for a spacious bin or unit:

Now, go for a bin or unit that serves you enough space to perform some physical and biological functions.

The specious bin allows you to make the continuous layers of dry and wet residual materials easily with greater efficiency. It also ensures the easy mixing or turning up of the material these layers are made. 

It is also essential to choose such a unit as it favors the proper ventilation or airflow through the pores present in the compost. It helps rapidly decompose material without any foul smell or pest invasion.

Without an appropriate supply of air, the compost gets attacked by pests which results in aerobic respiration, and the process of composting tends to stop eventually.

3. Select and gather all the material to be composted carefully:

Now, choose all the materials you want to compost your beans with. It can include some fruits and vegetable peels or some cooked stuff placed in your fridge. But, never add cooked material to the position of the top layer, and the top layer should only include raw and dried material along with some already made compost.

Also, do not select any food items which is too old or harmful. These items may result in the ingrowths of some undesirable disease-causing microorganisms, which will destroy the richness of your to be made compost.

You can search for other stuff in your kitchen that has not been attacked by pests and choose to add it to the compost bin. After selecting all the materials, you can move towards the next step, to compost beans.

4. Remove the unwanted stuff:

This step is the most necessary one as it helps you to decide the quality of your compost. Who doesn’t want their quality of compost to be excellent? No-one!

So, never skip this step, and if any item which is mentioned below has been selected to be put inside the compost, quickly remove it without giving it a second thought.

• Greeting cards, Invitation cards, or any thick cardboard (bearing thick paper)

• Weeds without shredding

• Coal ash (rich in sulfur)

• Sanitary napkins

• Tomatoes 

• Leather products

• Meat products

• Synthetic fibers and soaps

• Dairy products

• Cellophane sheets

• Peels of onion and garlic

• Glass materials

• Fruits that possess citric acid

• Infected leaves or branches

• Non-biodegradable items like plastic

5. Use the materials to be used in the correct ratio:

There are two kinds of terms that are widely used while talking about composting beans. These terms are called ”greens” and ”browns”. Greens represent those elements that are related to nitrogen. On the other hand, browns represent the elements related to carbon. 

While talking about organic farming, we must use these greens and browns in the correct proportion. The ratio used for this phenomenon is about 30:1, where 30 parts of carbon are used for every single part of nitrogen.

This ensures the convenient growth of compost by activating the enzymes in decomposers to perform their functions efficiently.

For ”browns” or carbon-rich elements, we can use leaves of the famous oak tree, whereas for ”greens”, we can use coffee beans as they have a greater nitrogen level than most other ordinary peels of fruits and vegetables to make the pile. 

6. Add the useful matter to the bin or the apparatus’s unit:

At first, make sure that you remove all the greenery or plantation (if present) from the ground. Later, place a bin or pallet underneath. Add some fine layers of greens and browns or nitrogen and carbon sources in the unit to start layering. The layer should be approximately 6 to 8 inches long. 

Make sure that you don’t put the materials in by dumping them tightly together because this will limit the presence of oxygen. After this step, use manure that is rich in providing nitrogen to the bacteria so that it heats up to start the process of decomposition.

After that, add a thin layer, preferably 1 to 2 inches long. This layer has to be of a garden compost which should be pest and insecticide-free. In this way, the beans and other materials become ready to transform into organic matter.

7. Keep turning the material after every 2 to 3 weeks:

Normally, it would be best to turn up the composting pile every 2 to 3 weeks, increasing the center’s temperature. This is when microorganisms start to perform their activities of breaking down the larger molecules of beans and other peels to convert them into smaller molecules. 

After 2 to 3 weeks, the compost should be turned up in such a way that the material in the middle comes to the side of the bin and at, the material that has been decomposed comes to the side of the bin, and the material present underneath takes up the central position in the apparatus. 

It should be kept in mind that during the onset of November, the compost should be left and not be turned up because it will then take a longer time to heat up, and in summers, the compost should be turned up more frequently for equal distribution of heat and water at all the places.

8. Reap the compost:

When you observe that your compost has become dark brown in color, it becomes ready to be used. An earthy smell now accompanies the compost, and it quickly gets disintegrated in your fingers.

But, if you see the presence of any fruit peels or some huge lumps along with the compost being too hot, leave it for some more weeks because, at this stage, it is not entirely ready to be used as manure. 

To get this fertilizer, put your bin over and separate the harvested pile having a dark brown appearance. The pile that doesn’t match this criterion should be kept in the same bin for some time to show the same features.

Some do(s) and don’t(s):

Everyone desires to get healthy and nutrient-enriched compost. To get this type of manure, you are supposed to take some precautions and some necessary measures. They are listed as follows:

• Always use shredded leaves, beans, and branches to make compost as they gather little or no space. They also ensure a good airflow within the process.

• Always keep your pile that is being composted moist and humid. Water is as essential as heat in the making of compost. 

• Never place the pile in a sweltering place. This will become dormant in the beans very soon.

• While having a household set up, do not greed for more to get high yields. Always start with a smaller pile as it prevents you from dumping the high-weight pile if, in any case, it doesn’t compost well.

• Do not use cooked material directly into the compost. Always place it 10 to 12 inches under the layer of other piles. This stops the action of pests.

• When you think your compost has become ready to be used, leave it on for further two weeks for proper breakdown of the molecule.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, you can easily compost beans with some materials present in hand by ensuring that you’re not using the wrong technique. If done with mild ingredients and conditions, you can compost beans in any unit.

Bean composting is not quite ordinary. But, with an increasing wave of getting good quality food products and agricultural aid, it will indeed manage to come in the charts in just some upcoming years. 

People like you can efficiently perform this as the vital ingredient; beans are readily available at your house. So, there’s no need to wait any longer, and you can start with your journey to compost beans now.