Last edited on 3 Feb 2024. View history
Rice Bean
Rice Bean
How to sow rice bean: Direct seed outdoors using seed drill or broadcast
Sun requirement for rice bean: Plant in Full Sun
Ricebean is a warm-season annual vine legume grown for it's small edible beans, which are often dried and cooked as dal. It is native to and predominantly grown in Asia. Ricebean is a member of the sub-genus Ceratotropis, which also includes Mung and Adzuki Beans. In addition to being a minor food crop, it is also grown as animal fodder and green manure. The plant has trifoliate leaves and bright yellow flowers. Seed pods are 6-8mm long and cylindrical. Ricebean's ideal temperature range is 18-37°C and it needs 60-150cm of water per season, which is provided by monsoons in it's native habitat. Harvest in the morning when 80% of the pods have turned brown.
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Rice bean facts
Lifespan
Height
100cmRow Spacing
30cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For rice bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 10°C and a shortest growing cycle of 40 days at its best temperature, about 560 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your rice bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Plant rice beans with
corn
millet
Photos
PhotosRice bean crops
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb, vine |
| Life span | annual, perennial |
| Habit | erect, climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours) |
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