Growing and caring for asparagus beans is a simple task, giving a flow of the crop for a long time. This is a wonderful dietary product grown in the open ground elementary, in any garden, in any corner of the garden. This is an example of a vegetable crop, which at the minimum cost of labor and money produces a maximum of vitamin production.
Description of the plant, its characteristics, benefits and harms
Asparagus haricot is a type of vegetable haricot, the pods of which do not contain hard fibers, and there is no “parchment” layer in them. It is eaten in whole pods while the grains are still in their infancy. In principle, ripe grains are also edible, but they are even tougher than conventional beans and require long cooking, so the beans are harvested with immature pods and are fully used in cooking.
This bean is called asparagus because of the similarity of the taste of the pods to the asparagus shoots. And in biological terms, she is a direct relative of ordinary beans, only her pods are slightly thinner and much longer, and inside them there are no fibers and a rigid film.
Sometimes they separately consider the type of Wing's beans, but this is not entirely correct. Vinga is a type of asparagus bean, characterized by especially long pods.
Blades (unripened pods) of asparagus beans are harvested at the age of 7-10 days. At this time, they are easy to prepare and have a delicate taste. Different varieties have pod lengths of 10 to 40 cm, and sometimes more, they can be tubular or almost flat, painted in different colors, but more often are green or yellow. Thick, fleshy pods are more suitable for preparation for the winter, and thin - for cooking soups or side dishes, but this is not necessary, it’s just more convenient.
Like ordinary grain beans, asparagus can be bushy or curly, that is, it looks like a compact bush or like a liana up to two meters or more. But any varieties are undemanding to growing conditions and require minimal attention of the gardener.
The composition of the pods includes a large list of healthy substances, but the product has a low calorie content (about 40 kcal per 100 g), which has earned the recognition of nutritionists. The protein content is about 3 g, and carbohydrates - about 10 g per 100 g of product. To some extent, bean proteins resemble those found in meat, so it is respected by vegetarians.
Asparagus bean dishes are useful for diseases of the liver, gall bladder, kidneys, heart. They are recommended for diabetics and hypertensives. They help get rid of intestinal infections, activate the process of hemoglobin production. Beans do not have absolute contraindications, but for diseases such as gout, gastritis, and stomach ulcers, they should be consumed in small quantities.
Varieties of Asparagus Beans
Like all types of beans, asparagus varieties are divided into bush and curly. There is also an intermediate class (semi-climbing, up to 1.5 m high). Growing technology differs only in that bush varieties do not need support, and climbers usually climb any obstacles themselves, but sometimes they need help in this. In the last decade, the number of known varieties has increased dramatically, even in the State Register of the Russian Federation there are several dozen. Perhaps the most popular are the following.
- Bona is a domestic mid-early variety, from germination to technical ripeness passes from 48 to 74 days, the purpose is universal. Shrubs no more than 30 cm high, pods up to 15 cm long, elongated, rounded, with a bent tip. A disease resistant variety recommended for cultivation in most regions. The yield is stable, medium, the variety is characterized by a long harvest of beans.
Bona pods are harvested for a very long time
- Blue Lake - winding beans, up to two meters high. Belongs to the list of superearly, matures one and a half months after sowing seeds. Supports are required, but basically she herself climbs them, like a vine. Bright green pods are smooth, thin, up to 18-20 cm long. Ideal for diet food.
Blue Lake loves to grow near fences
- Sweet courage - an early ripe bush variety, plant height up to 40 cm, the fruits ripen 40-50 days after emergence. Pods of a cylindrical shape, with a bend, at the stage of full ripening are painted in bright yellow color, up to 17 cm long, with a delicate taste. The taste of the products is excellent, the purpose is universal.
Sweet courage looks very elegant
- Neringa - bears fruit 55 days after sowing seeds, gives pods up to 16 cm long, round cross section, thin. It differs in friendly ripening of the crop, which can be removed immediately almost all. The taste is good, the pods are juicy, fleshy. The variety tolerates any climatic conditions, disease-resistant.
Neringa gives almost the entire crop at once
- Fakir is a mid-season variety from the Wing group: the length of the pods reaches half a meter with a diameter of about 1 cm. The pulp is tender, juicy. The height of the plant can reach three meters, supports are required. A variety of domestic selection, suitable for almost any region, but in the north it works best in greenhouses. Productivity and disease resistance are high.
Fakir has very thin and long pods.
- Spaghetti - the variety also belongs to the Wing group, pods of small diameter reach a length of 55 cm. From one bush, you can collect several kilograms of the crop. Harvested starting from the 60th day after planting seeds.
Spaghetti in appearance meets its name
- Sax 615 - one of the most popular, old varieties, cultivated since 1943. The first crop is ready 50 days after sowing the seeds. The bush is up to 40 cm high, sugar juicy pods are rounded, slightly curved, green, 9-12 cm long, 6 mm wide. Disease prevalence is average.
Sax - one of the oldest, time-tested varieties
- The Golden Princess is a mid-early bush variety. Pods of medium length, medium width, heart-shaped in cross section, with a pointed apex. The color of the pods is light yellow. Taste is excellent, yield and disease resistance at an average level.
The cutaway Golden Princess has an interesting heart-shaped
Advantages and disadvantages, differences from other types of beans
Asparagus haricot differs from other types in its delicate flesh, juicy leaves of the pod, lack of hard fibers and parchment partitions. For this, she is appreciated by gourmets and people who monitor their health. However, unlike sugar varieties of peas, it is almost never eaten raw. Although a little scalded, it can be added to vitamin salads, but not boiled pods can be consumed only in very small quantities. There are many ways to process the pods: frying, freezing, simple boiling, adding to a variety of first and second courses. There are many recipes for harvesting pods for the winter.
If the beans are cooked for a long time, at least two hours, then the preparation of the asparagus variety takes a very short time: for example, you can just fry it with the egg. The composition of the pods contains almost all known vitamins, as well as minerals and healthy fiber. The combination of fiber, folic acid, magnesium salts and potassium reduces the risk of heart attack.
The high zinc content allows you to solve specific men's problems. True, the protein content in it is lower than in grain beans, but it is easier to digest and less caloric.
Beans are also good because they do not need to be peeled. True, it is advisable to cut the ends of the pods with scissors before cooking: they are harsh, unlike the rest. The seeds of fully ripened asparagus beans can also be used as food, but they are even coarser compared to grain varieties, boil longer, so they try to collect such beans unripe.
Growing Features
Basically, Russian summer residents plant early and mid-ripening varieties, trying to get pods already before mid-summer. It is not very early to sow the seeds in the garden, the soil should be warmed up for sowing: the seeds begin to germinate at a soil temperature of 8-10 aboutC, and seedlings are very sensitive to frost and die at -1 aboutC. The optimum temperature for its growth is 20-25 aboutC. When you want to get the first crop at a very early date, beans are grown through seedlings.
Sowing Asparagus Beans: Step-by-Step Instructions
Planting asparagus beans in open ground and caring for young plants can only be carried out when warm weather occurs and the threat of severe cooling drops. This is the twentieth of May in the central region of our country, and the beginning of June in the north. In the south, all types of beans are sown a month earlier. Later dates lead to lower crop yields. If the seeds are sown in cold soil, their germination capacity is sharply reduced, and with swelling and in the phase of seedlings they rot, which is not observed in warm soil.
You can find indications that asparagus bean seeds are stored for no more than 5 years. This is not entirely true, when stored in dry rooms the seeds remain fit much longer. Therefore, there is no need to buy them annually, and it is extremely simple to procure the seeds of the desired variety from your crop. You just need to leave a couple of bushes until they fully ripen, without touching the pods at all until they dry on the bushes, then collect and extract seeds from the pods.
Beans can be grown on a separate garden bed, and they are often cultivated as a compacting crop, sowing around areas of potatoes, carrots, between rows of cucumbers and other crops. Several plants of climbing varieties can be planted close to the fence or any structure, they themselves will climb onto the supports.
A few bushes of beans will not interfere next to planting potatoes
Asparagus beans are not very demanding on the composition of the soil, but the soil must be loose and fertile. It grows very poorly in heavy cold soils with close occurrence of groundwater. On insufficiently fertile soils, the pods are too coarse. A bed for sowing should be prepared in a place well lit by the sun and protected from cold winds.
Good precursors for all types of beans are cucumbers, tomatoes and potatoes. Beans themselves are an ideal precursor for most vegetables, because they have the ability to accumulate nitrogen from the air on their roots, translating it into a form accessible to plants.
The most necessary fertilizers for beans are phosphorus and potash, but a high yield is possible only when full mineral fertilizers are applied. When digging beds at 1 m2 20 g of urea, 40 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium chloride are added. Instead of potassium salts, you can take a handful of wood ash. Fertilizers must be thoroughly mixed with the soil, so that when sowing to avoid contact of the seeds with them, as this germination may decrease.
Beans are very responsive to the application of organic fertilizers. Humus can be applied directly under the beans, about 1 kg per 1 m2, and fresh manure - only under the previous culture. It is advisable to add micronutrient fertilizers: boric, zinc, molybdenum, etc. If the soil is very acidic, it is necessary to add dolomite flour to it.
Bush varieties of asparagus beans are placed a little denser than curly: the latter needs a large area, usually it has a higher yield. Bush beans are sown in ordinary and nesting ways. With ordinary sowing, the distance between rows should be 30-35 cm, and between plants in a row of 5-8 cm. For nesting - nests are placed according to the scheme 40 x 40 cm, 6-8 seeds in a nest, the distance between them is 5-6 cm Beans, sprouting, take out the cotyledons to the surface of the soil, so the seeds need to be repaired finely - by 4-5 cm.
Curly seeds are often planted in one row along the fence, but if a separate bed with constructed supports is allocated, then a gap of 50-60 cm is made between the rows, and 20-30 cm between the holes in the row, focusing on the height of future plants.
Climbing varieties easily climb trees
In recent years, they have been trying to make a support with a coarse mesh (metal or plastic) installed vertically and reinforced with poles. It is advisable to place a support before sowing or immediately after it so that the beans begin to climb up as soon as they grow to a sufficient height.
Sowing asparagus beans is very simple:
- In the fall, a bed is dug up on a bayonet spade, making the necessary fertilizers.
Autumn preparation of the garden is carried out, as usual
- Before sowing, seeds are calibrated, discarding the smallest and most affected by pests. It is advisable to etch them (half an hour in a dark solution of potassium permanganate), and you can soak for 6-8 hours.
Seeds look like regular beans, easy to calibrate
- Having outlined the rows, seeds are sown according to the chosen pattern, the sowing depth is 4-5 cm (on dense loams 3-4 cm).
The seeds are not buried very deep
- After the seeds fall asleep, the garden bed is watered from a watering can with a strainer.
Soil must be wet to a fair depth
- Mulch the bed with humus; in extreme cases, simply dry earth.
Any bulk material is suitable for mulching.
Seedlings can be expected 7-10 after sowing.
Bean Care
Crop care consists in the systematic cultivation of row-spacing, weeding, fertilizing and watering. The first cultivation is carried out when the plants reach 5 cm in height, the second - after the appearance of the first pair of true leaves and the next - after each watering and rain. If the seedlings appear too thick, they must be thinned out in time. With the growth of bushes, loosening will be more difficult, therefore it is advisable to mulch the bed. When the bushes grow to 12-15 cm, they can be a bit spud with earth.
All types of beans are watered infrequently and moderately, avoiding strong overdrying of the soil. This should be done under the root, in the evenings, warmed with water by the sun during the day. After the fourth leaf appears, watering is stopped, it is resumed after the first flowers appear.
It is recommended to feed two times: the first - when a real leaf appears, the second - in the budding phase. At the first feeding of 1 m2 make 1 g of urea, 15 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium salt, the second time - only phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Bean provides itself with nitrogen, extracting it from the depths and getting literally from the air.
The early varieties are ready to gather blades very quickly, already in early July. But only some of them give the crop at a time, in most cases its receipt is very extended. If you do not cut the pods in time, the appearance of new ones will soon cease. If you harvest on time, it is possible to extend fruiting until the fall. Charges are repeated every 3-5 days, preferably in the morning.
Video: All About Growing and Using Asparagus Beans
Reviews
I’ve been soaking my whole life and no problems. Take the marlechka, fold the beans in 1 row, cover with the second end of the marlechka, fill with water so that the seeds are half covered, the next day they are planted. I usually soak it in the evening, you can cover the bed before sprouts with an old film. The neighbor makes it even easier, takes the seeds, puts them in a mayonnaise jar and pours them with water, planting them the next day. Seeds often rot if they are swollen and low in temperature.
"Penguin"//www.forumhouse.ru/threads/30808/page-6
I have an asparagus bush. A friend gave several years ago several seeds. someone also gave her a few things. And now it’s full. I plant every year. The bushes are low, 20 cm tall and all are strewn with pods. While the young eat and boiled and fried.I also soak it before planting for a day, and then into the ground and that's all, think I forgot about it. I plant around the potato bed. I only go for the pods. If it’s really sushi, I’ll water it. And last year she already ate too much and by the end of the summer just forgot about her. Send potatoes to dig, and there the bean plantation is ... A handy thing.
Vlada//dv0r.ru/forum/index.php?topic=1955.0
I collect from the bush with scissors, cutting so as not to recycle then again. My, I cook 5 minutes after boiling, in a colander ... I cut into 2-3 parts and really like adding to scrambled eggs and vegetable stew.
Natasha//www.tomat-pomidor.com/newforum/index.php?topic=7891.0
It tastes like grass. And vitamins can be obtained with apples. Once I had to try on a visit (it was inconvenient to refuse). I felt like a giraffe who chews leaves from a tree. For my taste, it’s better to plant a regular bean or pea bed than an asparagus bean.
Jardin//chudo-ogorod.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&p=9841
Vigna is more thermophilic and in a bad summer you can be left without a crop. In the greenhouse, pods are guaranteed to grow.
Galina Mishankina//forum.prihoz.ru/viewtopic.php?t=1201&start=885
Asparagus haricot contains various useful substances and vitamins, its young pods are especially good. Sowing this crop in summer cottages and caring for it is quite simple: agricultural technology is similar to growing peas, only sowing is carried out a little later. Harvest continues from mid-summer to September. Due to all this, asparagus beans are becoming increasingly popular among gardeners.
