Growing Mucunas

On May 3, 2017, I selected two nice sea beans, mucuna urens and mucuna sloanei, also known as hamburger beans or horse eye bean.  The m. sloanei is also called the gold jade vine.  With the m. sloanei, I drilled a hole in the top with a knife.  This was inspired by the book, Sea-Beans from the Tropics: A Collector’s Guide to Sea-Beans and other Tropical Drift on Atlantic Shores, by Ed Perry IV and John V. Dennis.

With the m. urens, I sanded two spots on the stripe (hilum) until just under one centimeter of white seed was showing.  I found this process on http://www.seabean.com

I soaked the seeds in a container of water for six hours.  The m. sloanei with the drilled hole was lumpy after I soaked it, especially where the hole was.  I planted them in a pot of Vigro garden soil, about the depth of one seed length.  I watered it every day.

THE M. SLOANEI SPROUTED!!!  On May 13 I saw a little white spot where I planted the  m. sloanei.  On May 15, it was about an inch tall.  The m. urens had taken root but hadn’t sprouted.  I transplanted the m. sloanei when it was about 7″ tall and starting to reach out for something to latch onto.  I continued watering it every day.

On May 25 (today), it is 34.5″ tall.  This is the height it is from the ground, when it is twisted around the stick.  It would be longer if I straightened it.  It grew an average of almost three inches per day in height! It is huge now!

I planted another m. sloanei on May 3rd and it was sanded. It sprouted a little while after the first one. It stayed a little under an inch tall for about two weeks so I thought it died. I checked on it on June 2nd and it was this big! It rained a lot over the past two days.