When is the best time to plant broad beans?

Broad bean, also known as broad bean and Buddha bean, is a plant of the genus Vicia of the legume family. Its seeds are edible and rich in protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and various vitamins and minerals, such as B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc. So when is the best time to plant broad beans?

When is the best time to plant broad beans?

In the southwest and Yangtze River basin areas, broad bean sowing time is usually scheduled in autumn, roughly from early October to early November. In northwest China, broad beans are mostly sown in spring and are expected to be harvested in the autumn of the same year. The sowing period generally starts in mid-to-late March and lasts until early April.

Broad bean planting method

1. Choose the variety

When choosing broad bean varieties, you need to decide based on the purpose of planting. If used for vegetables or green beans, large-grain varieties should be selected, with each 100 grains weighing more than 120 grams; if used for feed or green manure, small varieties with strong branching ability, rapid growth and high fresh grass yield should be selected, with each 100 grains weighing no more than 70 grams.

2. Inoculation of Rhizobium

Before sowing beans, inoculation with Rhizobia is key, especially on land that has never been grown with beans before. Inoculation of rhizobia helps to advance nodulation, increase the number of nodules, and thus increase yield. There are various inoculation methods: you can use the soil where broad beans were planted before, and apply 150 kg per mu; or mix 200 grams of rhizobia with 20 kg of broad bean seeds ; you can also use rhizobia fertilizer , use 500 grams per mu and mix it with fine soil and then spread it on the sowing site.

3. Land preparation and fertilization

In terms of land preparation, broad beans are mostly planted in paddy fields after rice is harvested. After rice is harvested, no-till direct seeding can be adopted, that is, direct sowing without plowing. During the waxy stage of rice, drainage ditches should be dug and the land should be leveled before sowing. The width of the beds should be 1.7 to 2 meters, the ditch width should be 33 centimeters, and the ditch depth should be 25 centimeters to ensure that the soil is fine and flat.

4. Sowing time

The sowing time should be determined according to the region and season. Autumn sowing is best carried out within 15 to 20 days after rice harvest, while spring sowing is from mid-to-late March to early April. In the southwest and the Yangtze River basin, broad beans can be sown in holes by using the rotten rice stumps as fertilizer to ensure uniform emergence of seedlings. The sowing density depends on the size of the variety. Large-grain seeds are planted 10,000 to 15,000 plants per mu, medium-grain seeds are planted 14,000 to 17,000 plants, and small-grain seeds are about 20,000 plants. The sowing hole distance is 27 to 30 cm, the row spacing is 40 to 50 cm, and 2 to 3 seeds are sown in each hole.

5. Fertilization management

In terms of fertilization management, although broad beans can fix nitrogen in the air through rhizobia, they still require appropriate topdressing. Apply 500 kg of farmyard manure and 25 kg of phosphate fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer. After emergence, before the rhizobia have fully exerted their effects, drought-resistant measures can be combined with the application of 500 kg of clear manure water per mu. During the initial flowering stage and pod-setting stage, use 15 kg of compound fertilizer and 10 kg of urea soaked in water per mu for watering, each time once.

6. Harvest

As for harvesting, dry grain production should be harvested when the leaves of the broad bean plants turn yellow and dry, and the stems turn yellow-green in color and lose water.

The above is an introduction to the sowing time and method of broad beans. Broad bean planting is actually not complicated. If you master the method, you can have a good yield.