Divisi
How to grow Green gram
Vigna radiata · Fabaceae
Photo: Ivar Leidus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Green gram (also called mung bean or ndengu) is a fast, warm-weather bean that goes from seed to harvest in just 60–90 days — quick enough to dodge a dry spell and to slot in after your maize, sorghum or millet. Like all beans, it makes its own nitrogen from the air through its roots, so it needs almost no fertiliser and even leaves the soil richer for the next crop — just a little phosphorus to build strong early roots. It sells well, fresh or dry. Two things decide whether you get a good crop: keeping the tiny whitefly (which spreads a yellow-leaf virus) off the young plants, and drying and sealing the seed hard so the storage beetle doesn't eat it in the store.
Lakshmi Narasimha Reddy Jonnala · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Arn · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 60–90 days
- Row spacing
- 37 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 10 cm
- Sowing depth
- 3–5 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will green gram actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Green gram
green gram · mung bean · golden gram · haricot mungo · ambérique · feijão-mungo · pojo · ndengu · mchooko
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing green gram, stage by stage
Your green gram season, step by step — from clean seed and a firm, well-drained seedbed, through beating the whitefly virus and the weeds in the first month, to picking the pods in rounds and sealing dry seed away from the storage beetle.
- Before you plant: get the field and inputs ready
- Sow and get a full, even stand
- Leafy growth and the critical weeding
- Flowering — protect the flowers
- Pods forming and filling
- Harvest — pick the pods in rounds
- Dry hard and store — beat the storage beetle
17 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for green gram — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack green gram
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your green gram right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does green gram take to grow?
Green gram takes about 60–90 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for green gram?
Space green gram rows about 37 cm apart, with roughly 10 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should green gram be planted?
Sow green gram at about 3–5 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack green gram?
The ones covered in this guide are Legume pod borer, Mungbean yellow mosaic virus. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow green gram with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first