Red beans are a thermophilic crop valued for their high vegetable protein content, taste and dietary properties. Learn how to plant, grow and store beans until the next harvest.
The history of red beans
The peoples who inhabited the South American continent were the first to grow beans. The wild plant was cultivated more than 7 thousand years ago. Somewhat later, beans were grown in Egypt, the Roman Empire, and China.
By the Middle Ages, beans were forgotten in Europe for some unknown reason. The next meeting with her took place thanks to the Spanish sailors. It was they who, after the journey of Columbus, brought bean seeds to Spain, which soon became one of the most nutritious and demanded crops here.
Red beans were brought to Russia in the 16th century. At first, it was perceived here as an ornamental plant, but as a food crop, it was only grown in the 18th century.
There are about 150 types of beans in the world, and red is only one of them.
The best varieties of red beans
This variety differs in the shape of the pods and beans, taste, ripening time, type of bushes (erect and curly) and other characteristics.
Popular varieties of red beans:
- Red ordinary. Bushes grow up to 50 cm in height. The pods are 10-12 cm long. Each contains 8-10 red seeds. The weight of one bean is 3 g. From 1 sq. m collect 2.5 kg of beans. Ripening periods are average.
- Little Red Riding Hood. The red pigmentation prevails in the beans. There is a mute white. It is a late-ripening variety with bushes up to 45 cm high. Medium-length pods contain 8-10 beans. Productivity - 3 kg per 1 sq. m and more.
- Chocolate girl. Late large-fruited variety with bushes 40-55 cm high. The pods are up to 15 cm long, each with 6-7 beans of red-brown color. Each bean has a white stripe. Productivity - over 3.5 kg / sq. m.
- Early ripening. An early variety with pink-red beans. There are white blotches. The length of one bean is up to 2 cm.
The benefits and harms of red beans
Any beans contain a plant-based, easily digestible protein, which is a great substitute for meat. Red beans contain approximately 25% protein, and in terms of energy value, it is equal to animal counterparts.
Benefits of red beans:
- promotes weight loss;
- suppresses appetite;
- prevents diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases;
- improves blood circulation;
- normalizes the digestive system;
- promotes the elimination of toxins;
- strengthens the immune system.
Red beans contain a record amount of boron, calcium, copper, magnesium, potassium, aluminum. It also contains a lot of vitamins C, E, K and group B.
Beans are strictly forbidden to be eaten raw, as this can cause poisoning. Fresh beans contain toxins that can be easily neutralized by cooking or soaking.
Beans are eaten with caution when:
- Gout. It is not recommended to eat a lot of beans and with a predisposition to this disease. Beans contain a lot of purines - substances that release uric acid during breakdown, which the kidneys may not be able to remove.
- Diseases of the stomach and intestines. Beans cause gas and bloating.
Planting rules for red beans
The main condition for successful growth and high yield of beans is the right timing and well-prepared soil. This thermophilic plant should not be planted before the heat is stable.
Planting dates for seedlings and in open ground
Beans are a heat-loving culture, so seeds thrown into cold soil will not germinate, they may even rot. Planting begins when the topsoil is 10-15 cm, warms up to + 12 ... + 15 ° С.
You cannot rush to plant beans, they are planted after the establishment of heat and the exclusion of night frosts. Seedlings die at +1 ° C. For active growth and development, the culture requires a temperature of + 20 ... + 25 ° C.
Sowing dates for beans in the ground:
- in the Urals - in early June;
- in Siberia - in the second decade of June;
- in the central region - in late May-early June;
- in the North-West region - in the first decade of June;
- in the south - in the second half of April.
You can plant beans for seedlings in early April. Also a favorable period is May.
Site selection and soil preparation
The beans are planted in well-lit areas free of drafts and strong winds. Any soils are suitable, except for excessively heavy clay soils - water stagnates in them, so the roots of plants can rot.
In the fall, dig up the soil as deep as possible, having previously scattered organic and mineral fertilizers over the area. For 1 sq. m of area, add:
- humus or compost - 4 kg;
- dolomite flour - 1 tbsp. l .;
- ammonium nitrate - 1 tbsp. l .;
- superphosphate - 2 tbsp. l.
It is recommended to plant beans after:
- cabbage;
- tomatoes;
- cucumbers;
- potatoes;
- eggplant;
- pepper.
Unwanted precursors are all legumes. Beans grow poorly after peas, soybeans, lentils, peanuts. On the site after these crops, it is planted no earlier than 3-4 years later. Beans grow well next to carrots, beets, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage.
Planting red beans outdoors
It is recommended to soak the seeds in water overnight before planting. If you use an infusion of ash instead of water, soaking is reduced to 2-3 hours. Immediately before sowing seeds in the ground, they are kept for 3-4 minutes in a weak solution of boric acid.
The procedure for planting red bean seeds in the ground:
- In the area dug up and fertilized since autumn, make furrows at 40 and 50 cm intervals for bush and curly beans, respectively. The depth of the furrows is 5-6 cm.
- Place the seeds in the dry grooves, observing the intervals of 20-25 cm and 30-35 cm for bush and climbing varieties, respectively. To increase germination, plant the seeds more often, but then the extra seedlings will have to be removed.
- Instead of furrows, you can make holes. Then put 3-4 beans in each of them. When shoots appear, leave the healthiest sprout, remove the rest or transplant to another bed.
- Sprinkle the crops with loose soil and level with a rake.
- Sprinkle over the area.
- If in doubt about night temperatures, temporarily cover crops with foil.
Planting seedlings
In regions with cold, lingering springs, it is recommended to grow beans using the seedling method in order to bring the pods ripening by 2-3 weeks.
Beans for seedlings are grown in large containers or in individual containers, including peat pots. The recommended container for growing seedlings is individual glasses of 250 ml and a diameter of 8 cm.
The order of sowing beans for seedlings:
- Soak the seeds before planting in the ground. It is desirable that they have sprouts.
- Make drain holes in the glasses. Place them on a pallet and add soil mixture. Soil options:
- Mix peat, humus and garden soil in a 1: 1: 2 ratio.
- Take compost, turf and sand in a ratio of 1: 1: 0.1.
- Mix garden and turf soil with sand in a ratio of 3: 2: 0.1.
- Sprinkle over the soil and make small indentations in the center of the glasses. The depth of the holes is 4-5 cm.When sowing in containers, leave intervals of 7-8 cm between the seeds.
- Place 1 or 2 beans in each well. Desirable sprouts down or sideways. Cover the holes with soil and compact a little.
- Cover crops with plastic foil and place in a warm room. From time to time (2-3 times a day) remove the covering material for 10-15 minutes so that condensation does not collect on it.
- When shoots appear, remove the film and lower the temperature by 2-3 ° C. Place containers with seedlings close to the light.
- Water the seedlings as the soil dries out. You can also apply a mineral complex fertilizer to the soil, for example, Diammofosku (dissolve 3 g in 1 liter of water). The frequency of feeding is 1 time per 10 days.
Apply fertilizers only after the first true leaves appear on the seedlings. Before applying top dressing, water the soil a little so as not to burn the roots.
Transplanting seedlings into open ground
Bean seedlings are planted one month after sowing the seeds. It is impossible to delay planting, so it is better to sow the beans a little later so that you do not have to plant seedlings in cold weather.
When to plant bean seedlings:
- in the Urals - late May-early June;
- in Siberia - the beginning or second decade of June;
- in the central region - the second half of May-early June;
- in the North-West region - end of May-first decade of June;
- in the south - in the second half of April and early May.
The procedure for planting bean seedlings in open ground:
- 2 weeks before transplanting seedlings into open ground, start hardening them. Expose every day, preferably in the morning, containers / glasses of seedlings to fresh air. First for 30-60 minutes. Increase the time gradually.
A couple of days before planting the seedlings, leave them outside overnight.
- On prepared beds, dug up and leveled with a rake, make depressions every 15-20 cm. Leave a distance of 40-50 cm between the rows (depending on the type of beans).
- If the beds have not been fertilized, add compost and wood ash to each well - 50 and 20 g, respectively.
- Pour warm, standing water over each hole.
- Remove the seedling from the container along with a clod of earth and transfer to the hole. If the seedlings grew in peat pots, place them together with the seedling in the groove.
- Sprinkle soil over the seedlings and compact carefully.
- Use supports when planting climbing beans.
To make the seedlings easy to remove from the planting containers, water them before planting.
Care and cultivation of red beans
Beans are one of the most unpretentious plants that do not require special attention from gardeners. He has basic needs - moisture, heat, food, soil free from weeds.
Watering rules
Beans love moisture, so they shouldn't be left without watering. It is especially important to water the crop at the first stage of development. The recommended watering frequency is once a week.
Irrigation rates, l per 1 sq. m:
- after emergence - 5-6;
- during flowering - 10-12;
- in the phase of formation and ripening of beans - 16-18.
Water the beans in the morning or evening. For irrigation, use settled and rainwater. It should not get on the aerial parts of the plants. It is best to pour water into the aisles.
Loosening the soil
They begin to loosen the soil after the emergence of shoots. As the beans grow, loosening is combined with weeding. By loosening the row spacing, oxygen is supplied to the roots of the plant, contributing to its growth and development.
Tips for loosening red beans:
- The formation of a crust must not be allowed, including before the emergence of shoots. The sprouts, breaking through, can break on the hard layer.
- Bush varieties are spud three times. Raking up the earth to the stems, they increase the resistance of the bushes. The first time the beds are spud at a plant height of 10 cm, the second - 20 cm, the third - at the stage of closing the adjacent beds.
Top dressing
Beans do not require additional fertilizing if fertilizers were applied for digging or in the holes during planting. But if this has not been done, or the soils are infertile, and the variety requires additional nutrition, they resort to feeding during the growing season.
Features of feeding:
- Mainly potassium and phosphorus are added. The culture extracts nitrogen from the soil on its own, thanks to nodule bacteria.
- At the initial stage, it is recommended to add superphosphate, during flowering and the formation of ovaries - potassium salt. Application rate - 30 g per 1 sq. m.
- Dry fertilizer is applied during loosening or spread out between rows. The solutions are poured through the narrow spout of the watering can, being careful not to get on the leaves and stems of the plants.
Garter
Only curly varieties of red beans need a garter. Without supports, plants will end up on the ground, they will ache and rot. The yield will drop or the pods will not ripen at all.
Tips for tying curly red beans:
- Wooden stakes with a length of 1.5-2 m are used as supports. Plastic and metal supports are not suitable - plant stems will not be able to trail along them.
- The second option is trellises. Along the edges of the bed, two supports are placed, between which they pull a wire, thick twine or a net with large cells - bean stalks will cling to them.
- Another option for garters is inclined wooden slats installed along the entire bed at an angle.
Diseases and pests
Red beans are not prone to disease, but under unfavorable conditions they are affected by fungal and viral infections, bacterial rot. Usually they are caused by a malicious violation of agricultural technology, non-observance of crop rotation and neglect of prevention.
Common diseases:
- Mosaic. Plants become covered with mosaic spots, leaves wrinkle, blistery swellings may appear. This viral disease has no specific treatment. Affected plants are pulled up and destroyed.
- Anthracnose. A fungal disease in which the leaves are covered with light brown spots. On the leaves they are round, and on the stems they are elongated. The pods rot and the beans inside them become sources of infection. Fungicides help fight the disease.
- Root rot. It affects seedlings. The people call the disease "black leg". Has no treatment. Prevention is needed - prevention of waterlogging, soil disinfection, compliance with crop rotation.
- White and gray rot. A fungal infection that affects all plant tissues. White or gray bloom covers the stems, leaves, pods, they soften and rot, the plants die.
- Powdery mildew. The causative agent is a fungus. Appears in high humidity. It spreads quickly and is highly contagious. The leaves of plants are covered with a white powdery bloom. The plant turns yellow and dries up.
Means of combating fungal diseases:
- Spraying with 1% Bordeaux liquid 1 or 2 times with an interval of 10 days.
- Treatment with biofungicides - Fitosporin, Mikosan, Trichodermin and others.
- Spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur - especially effective for anthracnose and powdery mildew.
Various types of pests are interested in beans, some eat leaves and gnaw the stems, others suck the juice out of them, and still others eat beans. Preventive measures, insecticides and traditional methods help to cope with them.
The most common pests:
- Slugs. They are nocturnal, eating all parts of plants. They are scared away from the beds with lime and ash - they are scattered between the rows.
- Aphid. It sucks juices from leaves, collecting in colonies on their back. Traditional methods help to drive away insects - spraying with infusions of tomato or tobacco tops, onion husks, celandine.
- Pea weevil (bruchus). Beetle larvae damage the beans by eating their flesh. Crops are treated with Gaupsin, Bicol, Verticillin. These drugs are effective against pea weevils and pea moths, thrips and spider mites.
Harvesting and storing red beans
Harvesting shell beans - for grain, begin when the beans are fully ripe. We must wait until they become hard and acquire a color corresponding to mature seeds.
The collection time depends on the variety and region of cultivation. It can be harvested from the end of July - for early ripening and early varieties, until the end of September - for late beans. If the leaves are dry and the pods turn yellow, it's time to harvest.
How to collect and store beans:
- Pull out bushes. And it is better to cut it off so that nodule bacteria remain in the soil, saturating it with nitrogen.
- Spread the bushes on a film or burlap - this will prevent the loss of grains that have fallen from the pods. If the weather is unstable, it is better to fold the crop under a canopy so that the rain does not get wet.
- When the pods are completely dry, begin shelling.Place the harvested beans in canvas bags or plastic bottles and store in a cool dry place.
Some gardeners do not husk beans, but hang the bushes from the ceiling - in a barn or shed, and then take pods from them as needed.
The pods and green beans can be frozen. They do not store fresh beans for a long time; they quickly wither and deteriorate. Within 8-10 days it must be eaten, frozen or preserved. Beans are blanched for 2 minutes before freezing, and then placed in containers.
Growing red beans does not cause any particular problems, its agricultural technology is simple and accessible even to novice gardeners. The key to a good harvest is the correct choice of planting dates, abundant watering and preventive measures.