Hyacith Bean & Black-eyed Susan Vine

20 years ago

Hello, i'm planing to grow Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) and Black-Eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergie alata) for the first time. When do I start them in NYC? How big should the pot for each of them be? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (7)

LynneNY
20 years ago
I'm in a suburb of NYC in Rockland County, zone 6, and I start my hyacinth bean seeds in the ground on May 15th, which is the last frost date for our area.

Good luck - the plants are great!
nygardener
20 years ago
You can start them indoors under fluorescent lights, or in a sunny, breezy window, 4-6 weeks earlier than that. They're very easy to grow. Start them in 3" pots and then transplant to 8-10" ones.
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OUTofSPITE
20 years ago
I just hope this spring isn't as cool as LAST year!
I'm in Westchester Cty & although our last frost date is SUPPOSED to be 5/15... we had a slight frost on the 21st!!

All the babies I started indoors were crying to be let out.

I usually start the week after Mother's Day... I didn't get going until Memorial Day!
UGH!!!
jenny_in_se_pa
20 years ago
I had a dickens of a time trying to get the hyacinth bean vine seeds started... until I found out too late what needed to be done (ie., should be planted shallowly). I bought some seedlings and the vines grew to at least 10ft, folded over...LOL

I saved seeds from the pods from last year and I think I'll grow them again.

The whole vine:

{{gwi:867}}

The pods and flowers:

{{gwi:868}}

These were growing from one of those 3ft long plastic troughs. Just make sure that you have plenty of support!!
Changsong
20 years ago
We planted Hyacith bean 2 years ago. It grew very very big. 2 plants and for a whole month (or even 2 ,can't remember) we had hyacith beans for each and every dinner. Everyone in the family (4 of us) complained.I guess we were also lazy about picking them and they were not so tender most of the time. Got sick of it and we did not plant it last year.
But now I miss it again and will plant one or two. This time I will make sure beans will be picked up early.
When first blooming it is very magnificant but then it attacted a lot of mites when it gets mature.
Changsong
AlllieNYC
20 years ago
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16 years ago
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