Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Mrs Soup on November 02, 2008, 20:30
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I've read in a magazine about growing aduki beans for dried beans. I'd like to try this and also green or brown lentils.
Does anyone have any experience of growing either of these which they could pass on? :?:
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As this has had lots of hits, but no replies. I thought maybe you'd be interested in the data below. Copied from the grow your own forum......
How to Grow Lentils
By ehow_home-garden_writer
Lentils are annual plants producing lens-shaped seeds. A cousin of the bean, the lentil belongs to the legume family, or those with seeds that grow within pods(of apparently two lentils per pod) Lentils are quite rich in iron and have the highest levels of protein of any vegetable next to soybeans. Once you know the right soil and climate conditions you can grow your own lentils.
The ones I bought from the supermarket DO SPROUT after two or three days in a small glass of plain room temp tap water in a quiet place in the kitchen.I am about to plant these into seedling trays to see what happens...
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Things You’ll Need:
• Soil pH tester
• Garden spade
Step 1:
Test your soil with a soil pH tester. Lentils grow best at a soil pH of 6.0 to 8.0
Step 2:
Find the best location to plant. Lentils grow best on level or slightly rolling land, which drains well.
Step 3:
Sow your seedlings using a garden spade early in spring. Work the soil while moist and when the soil is warm enough to stimulate germination.
Step 4:
Plant seedlings 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep in moist, but not wet, soil. You can plant them a bit deeper in well-draining soil.
Step 5:
Watch your lentil plants grow. On average they reach 1 to 2 1/2 feet high, with pods that usually hold two lentil seeds each.
Step 6:
Harvest them around mid-July when seeds mature and your soil dries. Lentils are drought tolerant and can grow under fairly dry conditions, although they do require a minimum of 6 inches of rain or watering during the entire growing season.
• Once planted, seedlings tolerate light frost and can regrow from below the soil surface if the early frost damage is substantial.
• Lentils do not tolerate flooding or waterlogged soil.
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Unless you live in a peat bog, I'd have thought a pH tester was not necessary - anything below pH 6 would be struggling anyway :!: and I very much doubt any soil is higher than pH 8 (unless you tipped several tonnes of lime in it :lol: ) especially if you have been adding manure & compost as part of your soil improvement :wink:
Although I've never grown lentils or aduki beans, legumes generally like a little lime in the soil (helps the nitrogen fixing bacteria)
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Well, germinating and growing is dead easy as with all legumes I've tried, the thing is, some legumes like it a bit warmer than we usually get to produce much of a crop.
Adzuki beans, well, you can just dry them indoors if it comes to that, you get 'cold tolerant' soy bean varieties nowadays, but lentils you might well find a struggle and a waste of space for the 2-3 a pod. Also, you mean 'not substantial' as to frost damage, though I'm unsure, how much that is correct.
Doubt they would be ready in mid-July, too. :wink: