Last edited on February 03, 2024. View history
Urad Bean
Urad Bean
How to sow urad bean: Direct seed outdoors
Sun requirement for urad bean: Plant in Full Sun
The Urad Bean, or Black Gram, is a species of bean native to India. It is an important food and animal fodder crop in India. Plants can be upright or trailing, with a tap root and narrow, cylindrical pods 4-6cm long. Pods are hairy, have a hooked beak, and contain 4-10 black or speckled seeds. The Urad Bean is similar to the Mung Bean, but Urad Bean pods are erect while Mung Bean pods are pendulous. Urad Bean can also grow on heavier soils than Mung Bean. Urad Bean is somewhat drought-tolerant and can be grown in arid or semi-arid regions. It is not tolerant of saline and alkaline soils. It optimum temperature range is 25-35° C. Urad Beans are used in dhal and other dishes or ground into flour. Sprouts and pods can also be eaten. They are sometimes called Black Lentils when they are available as the whole bean, and White Lentils when they are the split bean, but they should not be confused with true black lentils (Lens culinaris), which are much smaller.
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Urad 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 urad bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 8°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 1230 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 urad 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.
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Urad bean crops
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 60 to 130 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
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