How Fast Do Mung Beans Grow Up?

Growing Season

• With a three to four month growing season where temperatures remain above freezing, you can grow a crop of mung beans. This fast-growing legume takes only 90 to 100 days to go from a dried, hard seed to a mature plant ready for harvest. The plant produces 3-inch seedpods containing about 12 seeds each. Like other annuals, mung beans grow and die within a single growing season, so plan to replant each year.

Germination and Planting

• Mung beans get off to a fast start, taking only three to five days to germinate and sprout. Plant in late spring or early summer when the soil warms up several weeks after the last spring frost. Mung bean seeds germinate rapidly at 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Mung beans are susceptible to fungal problems, and prevention is the best way to combat this disease. When purchasing seed for planting, look for seeds specifically treated to resist fungal disease problems.

Planting

• Prepare the soil in a loamy, full-sun garden bed by tilling 1/2 pound of 5-10-10 granular fertilizer for every 25 feet of garden bed into the soil. When the soil warms up to 68 F or above, plant mung beans 1 1/2 inches deep and 6 inches apart. After planting, water the seedbed until it is damp to a 6-inch depth. Put down a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch like grass clippings of sawdust over the garden bed.

Care and Harvest

• This low-maintenance bean crop doesn't need a lot of care, but with a few steps at the right time, mung beans produce an abundant harvest. Apply 1 inch of water per week through the growing season. You don't need to add any fertilizer to the soil after planting and pests are not generally a problem. Pull weeds by hand as they appear to minimize competition.

Harvest

• Harvest mung beans when the pods dry and turn brittle, about 90 to 100 days after planting. Each cluster of pods will dry at a different rate, but when two-thirds of the pods are dry, harvest by pulling up whole plants by the roots. Hang them upside down over a paper bag in a warm, dry spot. When the beans are dry and hard, pull them out of the pods and store them in a cool, dry spot.

Sprouting

• Before you eat mung beans, you will want to sprout them. Rinse 1/3 cup of dried beans and then soak the beans in room temperature water for 12 hours. Drain and rinse the beans and then place them in a quart jar with a lid with drainage holes. Rinse and drain them twice a day, keeping the jar on its side in a warm, dark spot. Within a week, you will have 1-inch long white sprouts ready to eat.