Salt adds flavor to foods but draws moisture from plants.
Gardeners everywhere often try innovative ways to fertilize their bean plants in hopes of producing healthier, more bountiful crops. Some of these experimental methods are more effective than others. Adding natural ingredients, such as salt, to bean plants' water is one way gardeners try to add nutrients to the growing environment, but it must be done carefully.
Bean Moisture Requirements
Beans require ample moisture. These plants ideally should be watered daily to keep moisture levels consistent in the soil, but not over-watered. Soil for beans should always be moist, never muddy or soggy. Beans draw the water into their structures through their roots, using the water to complete life processes. Water also contains trace amounts of nutrients essential to bean plant health. Insufficient water affects the plants' production and can eventually lead to death.
Salt Benefits
While on the whole, application of salt or salt water is damaging to plant health, some plants are salt-tolerant and actually benefit from low applications of salt. Carefully monitored applications of rock salt or sodium chloride stimulate higher-quality fruit production and have even reduced disease on plants. This is because the low levels of salt encourage the plants to grow smaller, yet produce fruits that are average in size, with more taste. Salt can boost the plants' ability to complete life processes such as photosynthesis and even enhance nutrient production. Salt applications must be closely measured using a dissolved-salt testing meter to achieve desired results.
Salt Problems
Salt is a desiccant, meaning it dries things out. Anyone who has ever eaten a salty snack and noticed the thirst that follows can testify to this. When salt is dissolved in water and used for bean plants, the beans naturally take in some of that salt. The salt then begins to dry the plant out from the inside. Also, plant roots are designed to absorb as much pure water as possible as quickly as possible, while water with impurities is absorbed slowly. This leads to a decrease of water intake over time. Eventually the beans begin to dehydrate from within.
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a life process bean plants undergo each day. This process involves the plant using sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to create energy and the nourishment it needs to stay alive. Without proper water intake, the process of photosynthesis would be impossible, and eventually, the bean plant would shut down. There is no way to cure a plant that cannot complete life processes.
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