Cover Crop: Mung Bean

What are Mung beans?

Mung beans are defined by Merriam-Webster as "an erect bushy annual bean (Vigna radiata synonym Phaseolus aureus) that is widely cultivated in warm regions for its edible usually green or yellow seeds, for forage, and as the chief source of bean sprouts" (Source) Mung beans are said to reach maturity in roughly 60 days. I would consider this a short season crop. Mung beans are reported to be heat and drought tolerant.

What kind of Cover Crop are they?

Mung beans are a legume. They are said to have the ability to fix nitrogen with the mutualistic relationship it has with certain types of bacteria. Mung beans also create a fair amount of biomass that can be incorporated into soil to increase organic matter.

What is the ideal growing conditions?

Mung beans do best in hot humid weather. They do best between 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Mung beans do best in loamy to sandy loamy soils with good drainage.


Have you grown Mung beans? Have you used them as a cover crop? I'd love to hear everyone's experiences.  

I've only grown mung beans into sprouts for eating as such. I'm interested to know how they do for you.

I planted some rows of them as a bean crop and they did great here in southern Indiana.

I have previously only heard of the bean. I stumbled on the fact that it is a decent warm season legume which I plant to sub in where I would utilize peas for the cool season. I have an opportunity with a strip of soil that needs a root put into it so I figured an experiment was in order.

I haven't heard anyone grow Mung beans before in New York, so I'm going to give it a rip. I read that the seed pods do not split on the plant when coming to maturity. Not that I am worried about volunteers next year, but it makes harvesting my own future seed potentially easier.

they seem to take pretty easily- we sprout them to eat and any that get thrown in the compost or to the rabbits and somehow touch dirt seem to take off like rockets.
I think for chop and drop or green manure they are great. if you're growing to eat, maybe try some first (in the form you'll be able to make them, since often they're out there dehulled, which I personally can't do at home)- they are not your typical bean, I'm not really sure how to describe it, the only kind of bean my otherwise bean-loving family will not touch, period.
I look forward to seeing how they do in NY-- to eat as a pea substitute I think I'd recommend something like cowpea (which, when eaten green, is lovely), but i'm not sure how they'd do in that zone.

I'm quite pleased with mung beans added into a polyculture. I have a mishmash of mung beans, turnips, watermelon, sunflowers with a few other things sprinkled in. They really held their own in both dense and sparse patches.



I found that they will grow taller in areas that have a lot of dense foliage (radish leaves, watermelon vines) but keep a bush bean type shape. If there is a bunch of exposed soil, it is quite content to stay a short plant and put out pods.



I had a bit of rabbit and ground hog pressure on the plants but even the ones that were heavily grazed put out pods.



I have not tried eating mung beans yet, but I'm going to see if I can save seeds letting the plant dry out in place. We will see.

Pods have dried up on the plants, so I have gathered up a few to save seed for next year. I have not found a good palatable application for mung so I am planning on utilizing it for a base polyculture mix to supplement next years gourd/watermelon patch.



I found that the pods split pretty easy, but if you try to separate the two halves too quickly you will end up launching mung beans across your kitchen. They come out of the dried pod easily enough, it is good idle work.

At the end, I had gathered a small container to dry a little more along with some other beans that had dried up before we could pick them.



Next year I am going to plant the beans more intentionally rather than just tossing them on top of some exposed soil. I did notice that the mung beans that were planted near sunflowers utilized them as trellising and produced more than the beans left on the ground.