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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-249
Bambara Groundnut
Vigna subterranea
Bambara groundnut is the drought crop of this group, producing a food-grade seed on ground too poor and too dry for peanut or soybean - it is the third most eaten legume in Africa after groundnut and cowpea, a genuine staple candidate rather than a novelty. Its whole seed carries an amino acid profile comparable to soybean, though it must be boiled or roasted before eating; raw seed carries more trypsin inhibitor than soybean, along with phytate and tannin, and choosing a cream-seeded variety keeps the tannin lowest. Its pods swell underground exactly like peanut's, so it needs the same loose, sandy, unlimed bed rather than heavy alkaline clay - the crop tolerates the heat easily but sulks on calcareous ground. Once the pods are lifted, goats can graze the haulm directly off the row, a cleaner arrangement than peanut allows.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 8–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 5–6.5
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 6–11 in
- Mature spread
- 19–31 in
- Plant spacing
- 10–24 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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