Chania

Agriseeds Sugarbean Hohodza

Characteristics
  • Red speckles on cream background
  • Matures around 90 days (depends on altitude)
  • 15cm pod clearance
  • Excellent yield of plus 4mt/Ha under good farming practices
  • Good disease and pest tolerance (Angular Leaf Blight, Anthracnose, Common Blight, Halo Blight & Powdery Mildew)
    • Climatic Requirements
  • Best grown during the cooler months of summer (January to April) on the Highveld or in winter in the Lowveld with irrigation.
    • Soil Requirements
  • Clay soils
  • Loam soils
  • Well drained soils
  • optimum pH of 5.5-6.5
    • Planting
  • 45cm rows with 5 to 10 cm between plants, giving a population of about 350,000 plants per ha.
    • Sugarbean Inoculation with Rhizobia
  • Spread 100 kg of sugar bean seed (enough to plant 1 Ha) on a clean plastic sheet or in a large container.
  • Mix 100 g of inoculant and 1 litre of water in a clean bucket.
  • Add 50 grams of sugar into the solution. The sugar acts as an adhesive between the seed and the inoculant.
  • Stir the solution for 30 seconds.
  • Sprinkle the inoculant mix onto the seed.
  • As you sprinkle the inoculant onto the seed, turn the seed gently to ensure that all seeds are coated with the inoculant. The coated seeds should look shiny wet.
  • Plant immediately after inoculation and protect the inoculated seed from direct sunlight by covering the container with paper, cloth or gunny bag.
  • Sow the seeds in cool moist soil and cover immediately afterwards to protect the Rhizobia from sunlight. Each inoculant packet is sufficient for 100 kg of seed. For smaller amounts of seeds, use 10 g inoculant (2 heaped teaspoons), 5 g sugar (1 teaspoon) and 100 ml water per 10 kg seed.

    • Sugar bean Field Management

  • Fertilisers: low rates (200 to 350 kg per ha) of a compound fertiliser (e.g. 7.14.7).
  • A light top dressing with 100-150 kg/ha (depending on soil type) with a 28-34% N fertiliser (e.g. Ammonium Nitrate) just before flowering may also be required if the leaves are pale in colour.
    • Diseases
  • A number diseases such as Angular Leaf Spot (a fungus disease common on speckled beans), Anthracnose (fungus), Common Blight (bacteria), Halo Blight (bacteria), and Bean Common Mosaic Virus affect sugar bean. Some of the fungal diseases may be controlled with appropriate chemicals, but for the other diseases, clean seed, crop hygiene and crop rotation is important as a disease control measure. Avoid walking through wet crops. These may be applied either as a preventative spray or when the disease is first seen. Generally, several sprays are required at intervals of 7 to 14 days.
    • Anthracnose
  • Anthracnose is a fungal disease where dark red to black lesions develop on the whole plant, including the pods.
  • On stems and pods, lesions are sunken.
  • In moist weather the centres of lesions can become covered with pink spores.
  • Do not work in the field when plants are wet.
    • Angular leaf spot
  • This is a fungal disease and is usually observed at flowering.
  • Primary leaves have round lesions and are usually larger than the lesions on trifoliolate leaves.
  • Lesions first appear grey, and then become dark brown in colour.
  • The spots may increase in size and join together and reduce the yield.
    • Pests
  • Common insects affecting bean plants in Zimbabwe are the CMR beetle (blister beetle), cutworm, aphids, semi-loopers, bean stem maggot, red spider mite, heliothis bollworm and rootknot nematode
  • Check the field regularly for insects.
  • Not all insects, however, cause damage to the bean plant. For example, bees will not harm your crop and some insects such as spiders, lady birds and ants are natural enemies of harmful insects.
  • Also the larvae of the CMR beetle are beneficial because they feed on grasshopper eggs.
  • A number of other pests may attack beans, such as aphids, blister (CMR) beetles, chafer beetles, stink bugs, and boll worms.