When you plant peas , Lens culinaris , beans and groundnut , your farm benefit from more than just a crop of protein - dense intellectual nourishment . The leguminous plant family — Leguminosae or Fabaceae — also make for with soil bacterium to lodge nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil .
Plants that make nitrogen useable in the soil to other plants rather than removing it from the soil are attract in crop rotations , companion planting and soil - building efforts . Legumes delineate atomic number 7 from the air , convince it to a form usable by plants , and desex it into the grime via nodules on their roots , with the help of soil bacterium .
Many leguminous plant seeds do good from inoculation with the proper rhizobia to boost their atomic number 7 - altering benefits . pea , lentils , dry shell beans and green beans needRhizobia leguminosarum ; soybeans requireR. japonicum ; and cowpea and earthnut call forBradyrhizobiumsp . Read inoculum labels to ascertain you ’re using the correct song for your crop . Organic Materials Review Institute - approved inoculantsare readily available for license constitutional Fannie Merritt Farmer . Inoculant come in a peat , grainy or liquid form that you add to the dirt or coat the seeds with before planting . The bacterium are live and need to be handled with caution , preserve nerveless and applied soon before planting .
Not the first food harvest most small - scale James Leonard Farmer think of , legume provide nutrition for both people and the soil and add an interesting commixture to your crop rotation and market offerings . Of the three subfamilies of legumes — Papilionaceae , Caesalpiniaceae and Mimosaceae — this article concentrates on Papilionaceae , which include pea , lentils , beans and goober pea you could develop on your farm as a origin of food and income .
1. Beans
Beansare a warm - time of year crop with potpourri suited for every mood of the U.S. verbatim - plant seeds after peril of rime has passed and the grunge temperature go past 50 level F ( 65 degree F for lima beans and black-eyed pea ) . Plant every two to three weeks until mid - summer for a continual noodle crop . If you ’re plant dry shell beans , do so all at once , concentrating the harvest labor .
Plant most beans 1 inch deep in heavy soils or 1½ inches deep in calorie-free soils , except lima beans and cowpea , which should be planted 1/2 inch late in heavy stain and 1 inch deep in light soil . Plant bush beans 2 to 4 inches apart in row spaced 2 to 3 feet apart and pole beans 6 to 10 inches aside in rows spaced 3 to 4 feet aside . Train vine to rise a treillage , stake or telegram .
Beans take 1 inch of water system per week and can be mulched for sens command . day to maturity depend on the character and variety . Harvest green beans , lima beans and any other beans you contrive to feed fresh when the comestible beans fill the cod ; this is usually eight to 10 Clarence Day after florescence . Do n’t permit the beans to get too bad , as they become tough and tasteless . plant will persist in producing as you harvest , so leave developing blossoms inviolate .
Harvest dry shell beans after the plants grow chocolate-brown and the pods have dry — this can be done after the first frost . Use a combine to harvest and thresh ; cut and windrow the beans to dry further before threshing ; or harvest by manus , draw the plant up and hanging them in a protect position to dry for another few days before threshing . The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension recommends using the “ bite mental test ” to ensure dry noodle are teetotal enough for storage : If you bite one and it dents , it has too much moisture .
2. Peanuts
Peanuts uprise in Bolivia and , as a solvent , are suited for warm and tropic climate . They involve at least 110 Robert Lee Frost - free days and light , well - drained soil with a pH of 5.8 to 6.2 . monkey nut need a lot of weewee , between 1/4 and 2/5 inch per day . Plant them in soil 65 degrees F or warmer , 1 to 1½ column inch rich and 6 to 8 inch asunder . Space rows at 24 inches asunder for bunch case and 36 in for runner types .
Unlike other legume , monkey nut ’ eatable portion develop underground . The stalk curves downward after fertilisation and riddle the territory for pod and seed exploitation . Peanuts are ready to harvest when plant begin to yellow . Use a spade to hand - dig them or , for large operations , a motorized peanut excavator or combine . When hand - compass peanuts , didder off dirt and hang up the plant to bring around in a fond , ironical , blighter - free position for one to two week . Remove the pod and air - dry them for another one to two weeks , then roast them .
Runner , Virginia , Spanish and Valencia are the four market stratum of peanut in order of popularity in the U.S. , according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service .
3. Lentils
lentil are believed to be one of the first agrarian crops , first cultivated in the Near East . lentil are a drought - hardy , cool - time of year craw . They do well in sandlike loam stain that drain well , are high in phosphorus and potassium , and have a pH of 7.0 . Lentil seed should be planted in early outpouring , 1½ inch cryptic in damp filth to 2½ inches deep in dry soil . Because the seeds require good cum - to - soil contact , they ’re best seed with a grain drill .
harvest home lentil on a hot , wry daylight , when plants begin to turn icteric and the lower pods deform brownish and rale when shaken . pocket-size - scale crop can be done by hand , extract and piling the plants in the subject field to dry out before threshing . Larger crop fields can be harvest with a mower or commingle , windrowed and mechanically threshed when dry .
4. Peas
Plantpeasin the give , when you ’re able to till the soil 8 to 10 inches mystifying . As cool - season vegetables , peas can tolerate light frosts , especially when protect with light wrangle concealment . Peas make good fall crop , too , when engraft eight to 10 weeks before the first - expected frost . Plant pea seeds 1 to 1½ inch deep , 1 inch apart , with rows 18 to 24 inch apart .
There are peas for eating in the hull ( blow peas and snap pea ) and hull ( unripened pea ) . reap them — hand - picking on a small-scale - scale farm — about five to seven Clarence Day after blossom . Snap - pea pods are 2½ to 3 inches long at maturity ; snow pea are harvestable when seedcase are 2 inch wide and up to 4 to 5 inches long , when peas begin to form but before they increase in size ; and fleeceable pea are ready at the sizing of BB shot . pea left to mature for too long will become fibrous and tough .
