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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-247
Yardlong Bean
Vigna unguiculata subsp sesquipedalis
Yardlong bean is the pod crop cowpea's cousin was bred to become: the same species trained to produce foot-and-a-half to three-foot pods, harvested at snap stage before the seed swells so no shelling is needed, and it takes the heat of a long hot summer without complaint. Vines run up to eight feet, so wire or twine has to go in at seeding, and pods are ready in as little as fifty days, picked daily and tied into bunches for quality. Like its cousin it fixes nitrogen and leaves a useful residue behind, and the haulm makes forage after the pod harvest, with the leaves alone running higher in protein than the stems. Its only real site preference is drainage - it shrugs off drought but does poorly in a spot that holds water after a storm.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 5.5–6.5
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 5–10 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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