Rotation: often grown after rice or another cereal. Rootknot nematodes can cause
serious problems if mung beans are grown too often on the same land.
Intercropping: mung beans are often grown as a subordinate crop, mixed with
cereals such as sorghum, maize or millet, and even sugarcane.
GROWTH CONDITIONS
Day length: most varieties of mung beans are short-day, though long-day and day-
neutral varieties also exist.
Growth period: 80–120 days, up to 150 days, on average, though some new
varieties mature in 65 days. The green pods can be eaten 50–70 days after sowing.
Temperature: frost sensitive, and requires warm conditions, 30–36C being
optimum.
Rainfall: 650 mm minimum, 750–900 mm optimum. Poor seed-set if it rains during
flowering, and ideally the plants should mature during the dry season or a dry
period.
Pests: in Africa mung beans appear to be less susceptible to pests and diseases than
haricots (French beans) or cowpeas, while in southeast Asia it is attacked by the
same pests and diseases as the other legumes, such as:
- Bean Fly—the most serious pest in southeast Asia. Control: granular carbofuran at
planting. - Root-knot Nematodes—controlled with crop rotations. Some mung bean varieties
also act as hosts of the soybean cyst nematode. - Aphids, Cutworms, Pod Borers and Red Spider Mites—can be troublesome,
such as in the Philippines, and may need chemical control. - Storage Pests—such as the Cowpea Weevil, which also attacks the plants in the
field, and the Storage Weevil, a problem in Thailand, which affects some mung bean
varieties more than others.
YIELD
Average yields of mung bean are about 250–700 kg/ha (1 MT/ha in North America),
though modern improved varieties can yield more than 2 MT/ha in good conditions.
Individual pods can be removed as they ripen, or the whole plant can be uprooted
and either sun-dried or dried indoors.
UTILISATION
- Dry beans—mung beans are mainly grown for human food, the dry beans
being either boiled and eaten whole, or split and made into dhal. They are
highly nutritious, with a protein content of 22–31% (average 25%) with modern
varieties, and are more digestible than most other legumes. The beans are also
made into flour, or used as a source of starch, or made into sprouts; the sprouts
are also canned and quick-frozen. Dry beans are sometimes used for animal
food, mainly poultry, when they are either roasted or boiled. - Green, immature pods are sometimes eaten as a vegetable.
- Cover crop and green manure crop.
°
Altitude: 0–1800 m.
178 TONY WINCH
c. 10%.Leaves and stems after harvest can be used as fodder; protein content is