When to Plant Sword Beans? A Detailed Guide to Planting Time and Methods

Sword beans are also a type of legume. For sword beans, it is mainly the fresh, relatively tender pods that are used, and they often appear in our lives in the form of a simple stir-fry. They are very nutritious, and for young women who love beauty, eating more sword beans can whiten the skin. Many cosmetics now contain sword bean ingredients, and at the same time sword beans can also be used as medicine, and they are quite effective in treating some relatively common minor ailments. Today Qinnongwang brings you not information about the nutritional value of sword beans, but rather its planting methods and its planting time. Let's take a look together below.

Planting Time

Sword beans are a relatively heat-tolerant plant, so they can be sown in all three seasons of spring, summer, and autumn, though the varieties planted in each season will differ slightly. We choose varieties with better corresponding resistance according to the changes in season. Spring planting is generally around February or March, summer sowing is around May, and autumn sowing in August will then be transplanted. The best temperature for sword bean seeds to germinate is between 25 and 30 degrees, while the optimal temperature for sword bean seedlings to grow is between 20 and 25 degrees. The temperatures in the sowing months of each season will more or less be somewhat unsuitable, so when we normally sow, we must also maintain and control the field temperature well.

Planting Methods

1. Land Preparation

Planting sword beans is actually very simple. Back in the countryside, most fields were used to grow major crops, such as corn, rice, and so on, while sword beans were not really needed, so people would just plant one or two plants, casually growing them on the field ridges. From this it can be seen that it does not have high requirements for soil and does not need much land preparation. If you want high yield, it is generally best to choose sandy soil with good drainage and irrigation and strong permeability. When preparing the land, you need to make ridges and dig furrows, with each ridge about 30 cm wide, which can ensure smooth drainage in the field. Finally, apply base fertilizer; generally, spreading a layer of livestock manure on each ridge is enough.

2. Sowing

The seed coat of sword beans is on the harder side. If it is not treated before sowing, the sprouting speed is very slow, so we generally soak the sword bean seeds in water for about a day, then put them into formalin solution for seed dressing. After 20 minutes, take them out and rinse them in clean water; generally about three rinses is enough. Finally, put the seeds in a cotton bag and place them in an environment of 25 to 30 degrees for germination. After about five days, sprouting will appear, and then they can be sown. When sowing, we use the method of hole sowing, digging holes on the prepared ridges at a spacing of 40 cm per plant, then placing two to three seeds in each hole, and finally covering with thin soil and watering once.

3. Fertilizing

After the sword bean seedlings break through the soil, we can prepare to weed and fertilize. Generally, about one week after emergence, we carry out one round of cultivating and weeding. After weeding, on average each mu needs a topdressing of 1,000 jin of farmyard manure, 50 jin of compound fertilizer, 50 jin of potash fertilizer, and 30 jin of phosphate fertilizer, which can be watered on. The second fertilizing is when the sword bean seedlings grow to about 30 cm. In order to promote seedling growth, we mainly apply 1,000 jin of urea. The third fertilizing is when sword beans flower and form pods. At this time, the purpose of fertilizing is to promote flowering and preserve pods, so a certain dose of foliar fertilizer and boron fertilizer can be sprayed, along with 100 jin of potash fertilizer.

4. Trellising

Trellis management is something that must be done when sword bean seedlings grow to 40 to 50 cm, because sword bean seedlings grow somewhat long. If they are allowed to creep and grow on the ground, first, the field does not have such a large space, and second, when creeping on the ground they are greatly affected by moisture, temperature, and light, which will seriously reduce yield. So we generally build a support beside each plant, then attach some strings to the support, and guide the bean seedlings onto the trellis, letting them climb and grow along the strings on the trellis. This not only increases yield but also makes later harvesting and daily field management more convenient.

5. Disease Prevention

The most common diseases of sword beans are root rot, blight, rust, and powdery mildew. The commonly used control methods are spraying with dexon, chlorothalonil, zineb, and thiophanate-methyl, once every ten days, about three times in total. The main pests are aphids, South American leafminers, and tobacco whiteflies. For aphids, 40% dimethoate emulsion at 2,000 times dilution can be used, or dichlorvos at 800 times dilution can be sprayed for control. For South American leafminers and tobacco whiteflies, 10% imidacloprid wettable powder, 20% miman suspension concentrate, and the like can be used for control.