Last edited on 29 Nov 2025. View history
Mung Bean
Mung Bean
How to sow mung bean: Direct seed outdoors after last frost and soil temps are consistently 18°C
Sun requirement for mung bean: Plant in Full Sun
The Mung Bean is a warm-season annual vine in the legume (Fabaceae) family that is native to India. It is sprouted or grown as a mature plant for it's beans. Mature plants produce clusters of 7-10cm long, yellowish-brown to black pods with 10-15 seeds per pod. Seeds can be green, yellow, brown, or mottled black, and are high in protein, calcium, phosphorus, and other vitamins. Mung Bean plants resemble other bean plants, with yellow flowers and slightly smaller leaves than soy beans. They are self-pollinating and need 90-120 frost-free days. Beans benefit from being pre-soaked and inoculated with nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium bacteria before planting. Entire plants can be harvested once 60% of the bean pods are mature, and hung upside down in a shed to dry. Mung Beans can also be grown as a green manure (because of their nitrogen-fixing properties) and as animal forage.
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Mung bean facts
Lifespan
First harvest expected
1 week after plantingHeight
75cmRow Spacing
7cmGrown for
whole plant harvested 1 timeWhat 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 mung bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 8°C and a shortest growing cycle of 50 days at its best temperature, about 1025 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 mung 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.
How members grow mung beans
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PhotosMung bean crops
Mung bean plantings
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Where mung beans grow
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Who's planted mung beans
- shiny indoor plants · Wellington, NZ
- runnerbee17 West Patch · Polk County, IA
Mung bean harvests
-
shiny harvested not specified.
over 6 years ago
shiny harvested not specified.
Find mung bean seeds
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Optimal temperature | 21 - 36 °C |
| Absolute temperature | 8 - 40 °C |
| Optimal rainfall | 650 - 900 mm/year |
| Absolute rainfall | 500 - 1250 mm/year |
| Optimal soil pH | 5.5 - 6.2 |
| Absolute soil pH | 4.3 - 8.3 |
| Crop cycle | 50 - 120 days |
| Max altitude | 2000 m |
| Life form | herb, vine, sub-shrub |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect, climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
| Optimal light | very bright |
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