Winged Beans

[Lickey]

Having just done a web search on organic nitrogen, came across winged beans, its seems the whole plant is full of protein, from the star shaped beans, the leaves and the tubers in the ground, every part except the stem can be prepared and eaten, also the site states that this is better than cassava for pig and chicken food, in mixtures i suppose, and being high in nitrogen, can be ploughed into soil to naturally regenerate it, same as we used to do in UK with mustard or rape seed, let it grow 6 in, then plough it in..

Any ideas or experince appreciated, Thanks, Lickey.

[Lickey]

This website has a pic and description, Sorry, should included it in OP, might jog a memories.

Thanks, Lickey.http://www.leafforlife.org/PAGES/PSOPHOCA.HTM

[Pond Life]

http://www.leafforlife.org/PAGES/PSOPHOCA.HTM

Ive eaten these & didnt even know they were a bean.

Sounds like a good green manure & living mulch.

[Lickey]

Mrs tells me Thai name is TUA PRU, or spelling that sounds like that, I will visit local market soon, see what they are selling for ect, also try and find some seed, got some ground that needs rejuvenating, this seems pretty ideal, and theres a pig farm close by to our farm, just wondering if he will swap bags of shit for leaves?

[chownah]

Mrs tells me Thai name is TUA PRU, or spelling that sounds like that, I will visit local market soon, see what they are selling for ect, also try and find some seed, got some ground that needs rejuvenating, this seems pretty ideal, and theres a pig farm close by to our farm, just wondering if he will swap bags of shit for leaves?

There is probably no need to swap the leaves for manure....pound for pound the leaves are likely to be just as good as the manure....I don't know this for sure for winged beans as I have not had time to research winged beans yet but a high quality green manure crop will have (kilo for kilo) about the same nitrogen content as manure. Of course if you can get more kilo of manure than the feed you supply then you could be making a gain....it depends on alot of factors.

Chownah

[Lickey]

The idea is that we have 6 rai of cleared land and has been so for 2 years, its hillside ,red clay ground and well drained, if i can source the winged bean seeds locally, i will broadcast/sew these seeds just before the rainy season, im more interested in preparing the land for Papaya, as the original papaya are getting very tall and showing signs of various diaseses, also ive seen that its not wise to replant papaya on the same ground, 1 website sugests that nitrogen will not be replaced till the first crop is finished, my way of thinking is even if the crop is still active, it will provide good ground cover and a valuable source of nitrogen for any inter-cropping,

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed, Thanks. Lickey.

[chownah]

ON the internet they say that winged bean is a day sensitve and will only make flower and seed when days are short. This mean that if you plant them at the beginning of the wet season (June or July) then you won't get any flowers perhaps until the following Sept.......which for your purpose is probably not a problem but this is just a heads up in case you figured you would sell flowers or pods or seeds. Some day sensitive plants will produce flowers and seeds in Thailand all year round since Thailand is so near the equator that even the long days here aren't so long....I guess it depends on just how day sensitive some type of plant actually is..... I don't have much experience with growing these day sensitive plants but so far I've done soy beans and sunn hemp....both are day sensitive legumes and soybeans didn't make seeds in their off season and sunn hemp did but at a much much reduced rate.

A surprising coincidence: I asked my wife about tua pru and she pulled out a big dried pod of....guess what......tua pru!!!!..(at least it looks like a tua pru pod which as described on the internet is quite distinctive)....and said "I want to plant this".... I was pleasantly surprised so we'll be growing some soon. I told her that maybe we won't be getting any pods until after the rain stops and she just said she can get more seeds later and we can try some then too.

Chownah

[plachon]

ON the internet they say that winged bean is a day sensitve and will only make flower and seed when days are short. This mean that if you plant them at the beginning of the wet season (June or July) then you won't get any flowers perhaps until the following Sept.......which for your purpose is probably not a problem but this is just a heads up in case you figured you would sell flowers or pods or seeds. Some day sensitive plants will produce flowers and seeds in Thailand all year round since Thailand is so near the equator that even the long days here aren't so long....I guess it depends on just how day sensitive some type of plant actually is..... I don't have much experience with growing these day sensitive plants but so far I've done soy beans and sunn hemp....both are day sensitive legumes and soybeans didn't make seeds in their off season and sunn hemp did but at a much much reduced rate.

A surprising coincidence: I asked my wife about tua pru and she pulled out a big dried pod of....guess what......tua pru!!!!..(at least it looks like a tua pru pod which as described on the internet is quite distinctive)....and said "I want to plant this".... I was pleasantly surprised so we'll be growing some soon. I told her that maybe we won't be getting any pods until after the rain stops and she just said she can get more seeds later and we can try some then too.

Chownah

That's how i got started with tua pru/plu also...........one pod and about half a dozen seeds inside, about 4 years ago and have been self sufficeint ever since. Plant only enough around the garden for a few to survive and scramble up trees or along fences. They don't smother other plants and have quite sparse leaves, but will go very high up if you let them, making harvest quite tricky if you don't like heights.

Chownah is spot on that they flower best when the days are getting shorter from Oct through to December, so planting them around July at the height of the rainy season is usually best. Make sure they are in well-drained soil and have enough light to begin with, so if you want them to go up a tree, it's usually best to train them up a stick with lots of side branches first, but not plant right at the base of the tree, unless its not too shady underneath.

They are prolific flowerers and produce lots of pods -best eaten when young and crisp, as if you wait to long they can go quite stringy. We eat them fresh, steamed or fried with other veg and they taste great. Yam too pru with some goong and unripe mango is another favourite. Making my mouth watering just thinking about it.........

[Lickey]

Plachon, many thanks for your info, my primary idea is to use these as a nitrogen fixer for the 6 rai of clean ploughed land that i want to prepare for Papaya next year,

This ground is hillside red=clay, good drainage but has no shade atall, do you think they would survive these conditions?

Also, they are a climbing plant, so i think if they grow ok, i would need to make a 6ft high string and wire framework for them, same as runner beans in UK?

If the crop grows well, and is not the type of climber that strangulates trees ect, perhaps they would inter-crop with papaya very well, providing ground cover and nitrogen,

Thanks for any advice you can give, cheers, Lickey.

[chownah]

Lickey,

ONe site I saw on the net said that they don't need to climb when grown as green manure so the string and wire are not needed for your purposes.

You said you have centrosema growing there...have you given up on the idea of using it?

Chownah

[Lickey]

Hi Chownah, Yes still have the centrosema growing on the original papaya plantation, in some places where the strong weedkiller was applied, its the first plant through, so things are looking up in that respect, other places its made a real carpet, and strangley, it doesnt seem interested in climbing the papaya plants, i do like to keep a foot diameter clear of weeds round the base, with this creeper and the sawdust, im sure ive reached a happy medium in keeping the soil moist and not water-logged, we stopped selling the fruit 8 days ago, {ran out!! } looking at the fruits today, i reckon we can start selling again next weekend..

The Tua Pru is for the 6 rai of clean ground, nothing growing there atall, only the odd weed, i have been asured that no weedkiller has ever been used here, last crop was the thai potatoe, about 2 years ago, im not sure what this takes from the ground but i feel tua pru would regenerate the soil ready for more papaya next year, and if they will grow without string and wires, would be a bonus, same as UK i would think, runner beans could be made to bush out by nipping out the top after 5 trusses, very good if you could keep snails and slugs off the beans, if the winged beans grow and sell well, might just prepare another spare piece of ground for them!!

Cheers, Lickey.

[bina]

just got seeds from the states thru a asian specialty seed place (family mailed them to me); am waiting for anon to come back down from the north (stuck in moshav near lebanon) to deal with garden....i know that seems stupid but thai family cant afford to buy and they dont buy good quality when they do buy seeds; they do everything sort of haphazard like.

he says they climb and will let them climb up over my jasmine and the top of our open porch (just irrigatin poles at four cornerswith wire run over 'roof' for climbing plants: anon also has a tendency to scatter seeds in the garden so i dont know what he put where: everything from corn to melons. the other beans he planted in small plastic containers and wants to move them when they get larger. he told me to do the same for the winged beans.

if they are day sensitive then what season should i plant them here (israel?) since days shorten in august sept and rains dont come til november/december unless we water?

bina

[chownah]

just got seeds from the states thru a asian specialty seed place (family mailed them to me); am waiting for anon to come back down from the north (stuck in moshav near lebanon) to deal with garden....i know that seems stupid but thai family cant afford to buy and they dont buy good quality when they do buy seeds; they do everything sort of haphazard like.

he says they climb and will let them climb up over my jasmine and the top of our open porch (just irrigatin poles at four cornerswith wire run over 'roof' for climbing plants: anon also has a tendency to scatter seeds in the garden so i dont know what he put where: everything from corn to melons. the other beans he planted in small plastic containers and wants to move them when they get larger. he told me to do the same for the winged beans.

if they are day sensitive then what season should i plant them here (israel?) since days shorten in august sept and rains dont come til november/december unless we water?

bina

From what I have read and experienced it is not that the days are getting shorter but rather it is that the days are short. I have not grown winged beans yet but I imagine they will flower and produce pods and seeds PROBABLY anywhere from mid sept to mid march (days are about 12 hours or less long during that time interval) and perhaps a bit further beyond those limits...depending on what is the critical day length for them. You might be able to find the critical day length for them on the net...if you do give us a holler. If you think you want flowers etc. in Sept then you should probably plant at least a month before....and since they are a climbing plant it usually takes them longer to start flowering so maybe two or three months before...but I can't really say for sure......will frosts be a problem there? I think if you plant too soon they will just produce vegetation and get bigger until the season changes and then they will start flowering....but again I don't know for sure.

Chownah

P.S. I just saw that your seeds came from the US....in that case it might be that you got a day neutral variety (evidentally a fairly new development from what little I've read) in which case they will bloom any time of the year I think.....check out any infor the suppliler has to offer.

Chownah

Edited April 30, 2007 by chownah

[popshirt]

Our family farm is producing a bumper crop of winged beans as I write this.

I had never seen or eaten one before coming to Thailand.

Now they are one of my favourite ingredients in a salad (raw).

[Lickey]

Popshirt, thanks for joining in, have you got any infomation on how these are being grown, ie bushes, climbing, irrigation, fertiliser/cow/pig shit, price per kilo on market ect, are they intercropped with other plants ect, sorry for all these questions at once!! Thanks for any help on behalf of interested forum posters, Lickey..

[popshirt]

Popshirt, thanks for joining in, have you got any infomation on how these are being grown, ie bushes, climbing, irrigation, fertiliser/cow/pig shit, price per kilo on market ect, are they intercropped with other plants ect, sorry for all these questions at once!! Thanks for any help on behalf of interested forum posters, Lickey..

Sorry not much hands-on information. The plants do climb but most are in bushes. I think there is a lot of self-seeding going on. Drip irrigation. Pig/chicken/and deer shit for fertilizer (they also raise deer on the farm for the antlers). No info on market price.

[Lickey]

Thanks Popshirt, what youve told me fits in well with plans for new field next year, drip-feeding, pig/cow shit, self-seeding, bushes ect, and if they perform ok, will be another income for Mrs, cheers, Lickey..