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.