If you’re looking for a no-brainer type plant to add to your collection of the garden variety, black bean is a good way to go! Read this guide on how to grow black beans, and by this time a few months later, you will have a stable supply!
How To Grow Black Beans
Step 1: Get Your Dried Seeds & Prepare Them:
Black beans are harvested from the roots, so they don’t exactly have seeds like fruits do. Instead of using seeds, you should plant with the beans themselves, so go to the store and purchase a bag of dried black beans!
The entire “how to grow black beans” process will take you a mere 100-110 days to yield a harvest, so if you feel impatient with other plants in the garden, have your beans ready!
Step 2: Prepare The Pot:
The next step on how to grow black beans is to prepare their new home. If you want to harvest a whole bunch at once, you can plant the seeds in a bush. But in case you want to see the vines grow and take in a continuous flow of beans, you can settle on pole beans and utilize trellis for the vines to climb on!
Step 3: Prepare The Soil:
There is not a lot of soil preparation when it comes to planting black beans. The beans can make their own nitrogen to fertilize their home ground, so you can rest assured that the beans will grow without you having to add in any extra nutrients.
There are a few specifications when it comes to the soil, though. Beans need a pH rating of 6.0-6.5 to sprout, so you can buy a soil testing strip while you’re shopping for the dry beans for this how to grow black beans guide.
The soil also needs to be light, airy, and easy to drain, so your beans will be in a rather dry condition. You will not want the beans to be drowned in the water puddle you call a pot.
Whatever you do, don’t reuse the soil you’ve used to plant legumes already. Legumes tend to deplete the soil of all the nitrogen it has, so the beans will have to work extra hard to grow!
Step 4: Pick A Place For Sunlight:
After preparing the soil and the spot, you will need to find a suitable spot for your black beans to grow. Your black bean is going to need a lot of sunlight to grow up fast, so be sure to give it at least six to seven hours of uninterrupted sun. Be sure not to let any other plants block the flow of sunlight on your little baby plants.
Once you have finished this step, you’re halfway through the how to grow black beans guide already!
Step 5: Keep Your Beans Alive:
Before your beans can enter their new home in the pot you prepped, you will have to spend some time soaking your beans in water. Doing this will prompt the dried beans to germinate much more quickly and easily. Right before the day you want to plan the beans, put the beans in a small bowl of water and wake up to a batch of new seeds!
It also helps to line the bowl with some cotton pad for the beans to rest on and be easily fetched in the morning. Now, get some sleep, and you can finish this tutorial on how to grow black beans the next day!
In the morning, lay your beans on the pot. You’ll only need to dig a few one-inch deep holes for the seeds to stay in. If you’re planting beans in a bush, keeping the beans six inches apart will do.
But if planting pole beans is your choice, bean placement can be closer to one another. Trellises usually stay two to three feet apart from one another.
For the beans to sprout the right way, face the bean downwards into the soil. After that, you can sprinkle a bit of water on each bean spot to keep them all hydrated. When the beans have sprouted, be sure to feel the soil before you water to prevent drowning. You should only water the pots when the soil is mostly dry and airy.
Step 6: Mulch The Soil:
From here on, you can start mulching your soil. This helps keep the soil at a reasonable temperature and level of moisture, as well as preventing pests and weeds from developing along with your bean sprouts. You should start mulching when the beans have gained a few leaves.
Outro
The guide on how to grow black beans is rather straightforward and simple, so don’t hesitate to try planting these today. Following this guide, you can also get a feel of the steps to growing other plants as well. Black beans can go with nearly any fruit bowl or salad that you plan to make, so get some today!
