Divisi
How to grow Lablab
Lablab purpureus · Fabaceae
Photo: Dinesh Valke · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lablab (also called hyacinth bean or dolichos; njahi in Swahili) is one of the toughest beans a smallholder can grow. It is a nitrogen-fixing legume — given the right root partners it pulls most of its own fertiliser out of the air — and its deep taproot (about 2 m, deeper than you are tall) keeps it green through dry spells that wilt other crops. One planting can pay you three ways: dry beans to eat and sell, leafy fodder or hay for your animals, and a green crop you slash back into the soil to feed it. It grows either as a low bush (knee- to waist-high, 0.6–1 m) or as a long climber (well over head height, up to 6 m) that will run up a maize or sorghum stalk. One firm rule at the table: the mature dry beans hold natural antinutrients (substances that upset your stomach if eaten raw), so they must be soaked and boiled well before eating — never raw.
Md. Mahian · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Forest and Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0
- Days to maturity
- 100–150 days
- Row spacing
- 75 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 30 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 lablab 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 Lablab
lablab · hyacinth bean · dolichos · dolique · dolique d'Égypte · sem · lab-lab · feijão-lablab · njahi · fiwi
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 lablab, stage by stage
Your lablab season, step by step — a tough, drought-beating bean that feeds itself, your animals and your soil in one planting. Choose what it is mainly for before you sow, be patient (it is slow to come up), weed it clean while it is small, guard the flowers from pod borers, then pick the dry pods before they shatter and seal the beans away from weevils.
- Get your field and inputs ready
- Sow and get a good stand
- Weed early and train the climbers
- Flowering — guard it from pod borers
- Fill the pods, watch for weevils
- Harvest — grain, fodder or green manure
- Dry and store weevil-tight
17 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for lablab — 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 lablab
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your lablab 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 lablab take to grow?
Lablab takes about 100–150 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for lablab?
Space lablab rows about 75 cm apart, with roughly 30 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should lablab be planted?
Sow lablab at about 3–5 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack lablab?
The ones covered in this guide are Rust. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow lablab 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