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Any garden crops respond positively to fertilizing. Today there are many mineral fertilizers for tomatoes and cucumbers. Therefore, vegetable growers often face a dilemma about which fertilizers to choose for their crops. Today we will talk about feeding plants with yeast. This method cannot be considered new; our great-grandmothers used it when they did not yet know about mineral fertilizers.
Let's take a closer look at what the benefits are yeast feeding for cucumbers and tomatoes. Experienced gardeners do not need our advice, in their opinion, yeast help to grow a rich harvest of juicy and tasty vegetables. Beginners need to pay close attention to the recommendations.
Yeast in the garden
Yeast is a product used in cooking. But they can be successfully used to feed cucumbers and tomatoes.
Why are they useful:
- Firstly, they contain proteins, microelements, amino acids, and organic iron. All of them are necessary, like air for cucumbers and tomatoes.
- Secondly, it is a safe, environmentally friendly product. Therefore, you can safely give vegetables grown on your own plot even to small children.
- Thirdly, fertilizing with yeast helps improve soil microflora; yeast bacteria suppress harmful microorganisms.
- Fourthly, you can use organic fertilizer at different stages of vegetable development. Plants adapt faster and feel good both in open and closed ground.
How does yeast affect plants?
- Cucumbers and tomatoes quickly grow green mass and a powerful root system. And this, in turn, has a positive effect on the yield of cucumbers and tomatoes.
- Plants become more stress-resistant even under unfavorable growing conditions (this applies primarily to open ground).
- Immunity increases; when planted in the ground, cucumbers and tomatoes take root better.
- Diseases and pests are less bothersome to plants that have been fed with yeast.
Solutions are prepared from dry, granulated or raw yeast (also called live). Like any fertilizer, this product requires correct proportions.
Yeast contains beneficial bacteria, which, when placed in warm and moist soil, immediately begin rapid reproduction. Yeast as a fertilizer contains potassium and nitrogen, which enriches the soil. These microelements are necessary for cucumbers and tomatoes for normal development.
How to use yeast nutrition
They knew about feeding garden crops with yeast back in ancient times. Unfortunately, with the advent of mineral fertilizers, this method began to be forgotten. Gardeners with extensive experience in growing tomatoes and cucumbers believe that yeast feeding is no worse, and in some cases even more effective than chemicals.
In fact, she is excellent growth stimulator, a biologically active and harmless additive, activates the plant immune system. As for harm, there is no such information.The only thing gardeners should remember is that yeast acidifies the soil.
The first time yeast is used for feeding is at the stage of growing seedlings of cucumbers and tomatoes. The plants are fertilized again three weeks after planting the seedlings and when the first flowers appear. Root and foliar feeding of tomatoes is carried out after 15 days, cucumbers after 10.
Recipes
Since yeast has been used to fertilize tomatoes and cucumbers for hundreds of years, there are many practice-tested recipes. Some of them use only yeast, while others add wheat, nettles, hops, chicken manure, and sugar to prepare valuable fertilizer. There are also recipes based on black bread.
Just yeast
- First recipe. A thawed pack of raw yeast (200 grams) needs to be filled with a liter of warm water. If the water is chlorinated, it must first be settled. Neither cucumbers nor tomatoes need chlorine. It is better to use a container larger than one liter, since yeast bacteria will begin to multiply and the liquid will increase in volume. The leaven is infused for at least 3 hours. After that, it is poured into a bucket and topped up to 10 liters with warm water! This solution is enough for 10 plants.
- Second recipe. Take 2 bags of dry yeast, 7 grams each, and a third of sugar. Pour them into a ten-liter bucket of warm water. Sugar speeds up fermentation. Before watering, dilute in five parts of water. For cucumbers or tomatoes, pour one liter of solution per plant.
- Third recipe.Again, take 10 grams of dry yeast, two large spoons of granulated sugar. The ingredients are poured into 10 liters of warm water. Fermentation takes 3 hours. It is best to place the container in the sun. The stock solution is diluted 1:5 with warm water.
- Fourth recipe. To prepare the mother liquor, use 10 grams of yeast and a third of a glass of sugar. All this is poured into a ten-liter container with warm water. To enhance the effect of yeast fungi, add 2 more tablets of ascorbic acid and a handful of soil. This fertilizing for tomatoes and cucumbers must be left in place for 24 hours. The starter is stirred from time to time. The proportion is identical to the second and third recipes.
Yeast feeding with additives
- This recipe requires a large 50 liter container. Green grass is mowed in advance: during fermentation, it releases nitrogen into the solution. Quinoa is not used for feeding tomatoes, since late blight spores like to settle on it.The crushed grass is placed in a container, 500 grams of fresh yeast and a loaf of bread are added to it. After this, the mass is poured with warm water and left to ferment for 48 hours. The readiness of fertilizing can be recognized by the specific smell of fermented grass. The stock solution is diluted 1:10. Under a cucumber or tomato you need to pour a liter jar of yeast fertilizer.
- To prepare the next vegetable fertilizer you will need one liter of homemade milk (it won’t come out of packets!), 2 packets of granulated yeast, 7 grams each. The mixture should ferment for about 3 hours. Add one liter of mother solution to 10 liters of warm water.
- Feeding works well with chicken droppings. You will need: granulated sugar (a third of a glass), wet yeast (250 grams), wood ash and bird droppings 2 cups each. Fermentation takes a couple of hours. To prepare the working solution, the mixture is poured into a ten-liter bucket of warm water.
- This recipe contains hops. Take one glass of fresh cones and pour into boiling water. The hops are boiled for about 50 minutes. When the broth has cooled to room temperature, add flour (4 large spoons) and granulated sugar (2 spoons). The container is left warm for 24 hours. After the time has passed, add two grated potatoes and set aside for another 24 hours. Before preparing the working solution, the starter must be strained. To water cucumbers and tomatoes, add another 9 liters of water.
- Instead of hops, gardeners use wheat grains. They are first germinated, then ground, flour and granulated sugar, dry or raw yeast are added (see the description of the recipe with hop cones). The resulting mass is boiled in a water bath for a third of an hour. After a day, the mother liquor is ready. Top dressing for tomatoes is the same as in the recipe above.
Another yeast-based feeding option:
Let's sum it up
It is unrealistic to talk about all the recipes for yeast supplements in one article. I would like to believe that a safe method of growing tomatoes and cucumbers will be of interest to beginning gardeners. After all, this organic fertilizer not only nourishes the plants themselves, but also improves the structure of the soil.
You can carry out foliar feeding of plants with yeast. This use of organic fertilizer relieves tomatoes from late blight, and cucumbers from spotting.The only drawback of foliar feeding is that the liquid does not adhere well to the foliage. But in general, as experienced gardeners note, yeast fertilizing allows you to obtain a harvest of environmentally friendly vegetables.
