Mongo (Mung Bean) Production Guide

Vigna radiata, popularly known worldwide as mung bean, or simply mongo, is a legume cultivated for its edible seeds and sprouts across Asia. It is the cheapest source of vegetable protein with protein content of 20-25 percent, rich in vitamins, calcium and sodium, which are usually deficient in most bean diets. It is an excellent crop for green manuring, because it matures early, grows fast and produces abundant vegetative tops.

The appearance of mung bean plants is more like garden beans, and they can grow up to 24 to 30 inches (60–75 cm) tall; they also have smaller leaves, and a moderate number of branches. Pods are three to four inches long, with 10 to 15 seeds each, and there are 30 to 40 pods in every plant.

Utilization
Mung beans are mainly utilized for human food: infant supplements, snacks, desserts and viands. It is a basic ingredient in popular food items like hopia, butse-butse, sotanghon and halo-halo. It is cooked with meat or shrimps or served as vegetable dish. It is the basic material in the preparation of piyaya, an ilonggo delicacy. Its sprouts in meal dishes are very popular not only in the Philippines but also in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. It is also a relovent, carminative and antipoisoning agent.

Farm Practices
Mongo is a Nitrogen-rich crop used in inter-cropping rotation and relay cropping. Farmers plant mongo during the second cropping season due to its low moisture content. It is fairly drought-tolerant crop with a short maturity period. It is also used as a substitute for soybean meal in poultry feed formulation.

Mongo is planted by row-grill method, or broadcast method. Harvesting starts within 65-72 days after planting when pods turn brown or black and leaves turn yellow. It is done by handpicking the pods which are then sundried, threshed and packed in sacks.

Climatic Requirement
Mung bean is drought-tolerant and requires a warm climate during its growing period. The prevailing temperature and humidity in the region is suited for optimum yields.

Recommended Varieties

BPI Mg 9
Pag-asa 7
NSIC Mg 8
NSIC Mg 12
NSIC Mg 13
Other all-season varieties

Planting

1. Just after harvesting rice:

Flush irrigate the area and drain excess water

2. Broadcast evenly the mungo seeds at the rate of:

30 kgs seeds/ha (90-95% germination)
35 kgs seeds/ha (80-85% germination)
37-40 seeds/ha (75-80% germination)

3. If rice stubbles is 10-15 cm high, lightly puddle with mini tractor-drawn the area to help seeds in the stubbles get in contact with the soil.

Seed Inoculation

– Inoculate the seeds prior to broadcasting with rhizobium inoculant at the rate of 5 kgs/pack of inoculant.
– To inoculate the seeds; a) sprinkle/moisten the seeds with water (10 kgs:1 glass of water).
– Pour the inoculants and mix evenly until seeds are well-coated.
– Broadcast the inoculated seeds just after mixing.

Mung Bean Sprouting

If you are sprouting mung beans for culinary use then follow this simple procedure:

– Take the required amount of beans to sprout (bear in mind that the quantity will double once sprouted).
– Wash in cold water until the water runs clear
– After draining, and place in a bowl, and immerse in water (about 2.5X the volume of beans should be adequate).
– Soak overnight (10 to 12 hours).
– Drain, rinse the beans with waters, then drain again
– Put the beans in a jar, and cover the leaf with a light cloth.
– Place the jar in a dimly lit part of the kitchen (out of direct sunlight).
– Repeat the rinse and drain cycle for twice a day (first thing in the morning, late in the evening works; about every 8 hours). You will see small sprouts after about two days, and if you prefer longer sprouts it will tale about five days.

Nutrient Management

– To ensure high yield and attain 3 pod priming frequency, spray the plants with foliar fertilizer (high in potassium and phosphorous content) at 25-30 DAP and after 1st and 2nd priming.
– Foliar fertilizer spraying can be combined/mixed with compatible insecticides.

Pest Management

– 3-5 days after seed emergence, spray the plants with appropriate insecticides to control beanfly (wilting and presence of pin-holes in leaves at seedling stage are common symptoms)
– If high population of weeds (particularly grass) are outgrowing the plants, spray selective post-emergence herbicide like ONECIDE.
– Control leaf folder and pod borer by spraying contact insecticide at vegetative stage (10-15 days after planting (DAP), flowering stage (20-30 DAP) and every after pod priming.
– Control powdery mildew and Cercospora leaf spot disease with appropriate fungicides starting flowering stage.
– Rogue/uproot and burn mosaic-infected plants to avoid spread of virus diseases.

Harvest Management

– Handpicking (or priming) mature (black) pods in the early morning or late afternoon to minimize shattering
– Priming is done up to five times depending on the maturity of the pods. In some part of Pampanga, the farmers cut the plants at one time when most of the pods have matured. Attain three primings and harvest at 1-week interval

Sun-drying & Threshing

Freshly harvested pods are sundried on concrete pavement or on the ground with mat; pods are threshed by beating or trampling on dried pods. Manual threshing can be done but the use of mechanical rice-thresher can speed- up the operation and reduce expenses

Cleaning
It is done by sieving or winnowing the threshed pods.

Storage

– Use of nylon or jute sacks, cans (covered air-tight) and empty cement sacks and stored inside the house or storehouse.
– Cool overnight the seeds before keeping in a storage cans.
– Mix the seeds with dried neem tree seeds/leaves, hot pepper (siling labuyo), naphthalene balls, etc.

Sources:
feedipedia.org/node/235
prezi.com/nfwi7kajnpyq/the-effect-of-sunlight-to-the-growth-of-monggo-seeds/
rfu6.da.gov.ph/agribiz/mongo.htm
bar.gov.ph
gardenershq.com/Growing-Mung-Beans.php