How to Grow Adzuki Beans? A Detailed Guide to Planting Methods and Key Techniques

Adzuki bean, also commonly known as red bean, is a plant in the order Fabales, family Fabaceae, and is widely cultivated across China, so how do you grow adzuki beans?

1. Growth Habits of Adzuki Bean

Adzuki bean, an annual semi-twining herbaceous plant in the Fabaceae family, has the effects of promoting blood circulation and nourishing blood, strengthening the spleen and removing dampness, and reducing water retention and swelling. It is also called red small bean, adzuki, vermilion bean, and so on.

The pod of adzuki bean is linear-cylindrical, drooping, 6-10 cm long, about 5 mm wide, hairless, with 6-10 seeds, long elliptical, usually dark red, sometimes brown, black or straw yellow, 3-3.5 mm in diameter, with a sunken hilum. The flowering period is from May to August.

2. How to Grow Adzuki Beans?

1. Seed selection

Choose large, plump adzuki bean seeds and select varieties suitable for local cultivation.

For example, Kenyin No. 1, Baoqing Red, Longxiaodou, Hejiang No. 1, Japanese Red, Ji 111, Dahongpao, and so on.

2. Sowing

Plant according to a reasonable density, with a row spacing generally of 50-60 cm.

To ensure early and uniform emergence, sowing depth should be kept as consistent as possible. Before sowing, carry out mechanical or manual seed selection. Remove insect-damaged grains, broken grains and impurities to ensure seed purity and cleanliness. After selection, sun-drying the seeds for 1-2 days can improve the vitality of adzuki bean seeds. Seed coating agents can also be used for seed dressing to control seedling-stage pests and diseases and supplement trace elements. In the southern region of Heilongjiang Province, sowing is generally done from late April to mid-May; in the cold northern regions, sowing from May 5 to May 15 is sufficient.

After sowing, press the soil promptly to avoid soil moisture loss. In arid areas, pressing can also be done once before and once after sowing. Adjust planting density appropriately according to natural and production conditions: for high-fertility and high-water land, keep 150,000-225,000 plants/hm2; for medium-fertility and medium-water land, keep 225,000-303,000 plants/hm2; for low-fertility and low-water land, keep more than 300,000 plants/hm2.

If missing plants are found, sprout the seeds promptly and replant.

3. Other management

During the seedling stage of adzuki bean, cultivation and weeding are also needed, and during the growth process, reasonable fertilization and prevention of pests and diseases are required.

Cultivation: Adzuki bean has weak growth vigor at the seedling stage and is susceptible to weed damage, which is detrimental to growth. Timely cultivation can eliminate weeds in the field while also loosening the soil, raising soil temperature, regulating soil moisture, nutrients and aeration, promoting root and aboveground growth, and enhancing its nitrogen-fixing capacity.

Fertilization: The general fertilization principle for growing adzuki bean is to apply nitrogen fertilizer skillfully, apply phosphate fertilizer heavily, apply potassium fertilizer differentially, and appropriately increase the application of molybdenum fertilizer and bacterial fertilizer.

Pest and disease control: Before sowing, biological pesticides such as Nongkang 120, Keshengmycin and Sophora flavescens extract can be used for seed dressing. During the growth period, in the early stage of aphid and bean pod borer occurrence (that is, mid-July and early August), BT biological preparations and Sophora flavescens extract biological insecticides can be used once each for control.