The love for beans tends to come with age: in childhood, we rarely appreciate the taste or nutritional qualities of this crop. But if you still taste it, then you begin to understand that it is impossible to spoil any dish with beans, it will only benefit from the presence of beans. Adds optimism to the fact that the technology of growing beans is simple and affordable.
Sorts
Having conceived the cultivation of traditional beans, you should first understand its varieties and varieties. All varieties can be divided into three main groups: containing shelling, sugar and semi-sugar beans.
If you choose shelling varieties, then they are characterized by the presence of a dense film layer on the inner walls of the pod valves. Such beans rarely grow in household plots: its taste is far from ideal, therefore such beans are cultivated exclusively for grain.
In semi-sugar and sugar varieties, the parchment layer is either thinner or completely absent, so you can collect such pods already at the stage of technical ripeness. If you missed the right moment and the pod growing on the stem has already coarsened, do not despair: you can always collect only the grains from them.
In addition, there is a division of varieties according to one more criterion: beans can be bush and curly. Bush varieties can reach a height of more than half a meter, but curly varieties and completely confidently approach the three-meter mark. By the way, it is this property that makes it possible to use plants to form hedges.
Video “Varieties”
From the video you will learn what varieties of beans are.
Place for planting
Bean cultivation technology suggests its extreme thermophilicity, therefore it is better to plant a crop on the southern slopes, protected from drafts. It is here that optimal conditions for this crop will be created – with a sufficient amount of light and heat. In terms of soil, legumes prefer light soil, possibly loam.
If you want to speed up your harvest, try sowing beans under a small portable greenhouse. At the same time, it is necessary to install a shelter in the chosen place in advance – two weeks before the proposed sowing, in order to give the soil the opportunity to warm up well. And you can clean it when the warm weather is finally established and the slightest danger of night frost has passed.
The best yield can be achieved if beans are sown in areas where row crops have previously grown. But planting legumes twice in the same area is categorically not recommended, by doing this you increase the risk of plants being affected by various diseases. If the place was successful, then you can re-plant beans on it no earlier than after a few years.
Cultivation
When answering the question of how to grow beans in the country, the first thing to note is caution with fertilizers. The fact is that excessive fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers will certainly cause the rapid development of green mass, but will inevitably slow down the formation of beans. Therefore, it is necessary to apply nitrogen fertilizers only as a last resort if you were forced to plant on poor or depleted soils, and then very moderately.
As soon as the buds begin to form on the plants, you can add a small amount of superphosphates and potassium salt, and at the time of the ripening of the beans, ordinary ash.
Care
Beans of asparagus varieties, for example, cowpea, involve growing according to a scheme similar to other varieties of legumes: after germination (when young sprouts reach a height of about 7 cm), the ground must be loosened to enrich it with oxygen and simplify moisture access to the roots. In addition, loosening the soil necessarily leads to the destruction of weeds, which cannot but affect the culture in the most favorable way. Several weeks will pass and the loosening must be repeated, simultaneously hilling the plantings.
Separately, it is worth noting the need for watering, it occurs especially sharply twice during the entire period of the plant’s life, during the formation of green mass and when the ovary is formed.
Harvesting
If your goal is to grow beans as a business, then you can harvest the pods every 5-7 days: this time is enough for the beans to reach ten centimeters in length and form grains resembling wheat in size. It is this stage of ripeness that is considered the most suitable for implementation; the beans have a particularly delicate taste. For home canning, you can leave the pods on the bushes for a few more days so that the grains reach a length of 1 cm.
It is best to harvest early in the morning or in the evening, when the intensity of sunlight is minimal; in the scorching sun, the beans quickly lose their commercial properties, wither and become dry.
If you’re only interested in the beans, then let the pods reach their waxy ripeness. After that, the plants are uprooted, tied in small bunches and hung in a well-ventilated place for ripening. After two weeks, the grains can be released from the pods.
As you can see, beans are a rather unpretentious crop, its cultivation and care will not take you much effort, but the taste of the product will certainly please you.
Video “Growing”
From the video you will learn how to grow beans in your garden.
