Author(s)

Jaekedah Christian¹, Dafeng Hui^1*, Navneet Kaur¹, Christina Kieffer¹, Soroush Moghaddam¹, Aisha Touray¹, Joshua Borlay¹, Matthew W. Blair², Srinivasa Rao Mentreddy³, Fisseha Tegegne², Prabodh Illukpitiya²

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
²Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
³Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, Normal, Alabama, USA.

Mung bean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek.) is a warm-season, C₃ pulse crop of the legume family that has been widely cultivated in Asian countries. As the demand for mung bean continues to increase in the United States, the ecophysiology, growth, and yield of mung bean varieties in the southeastern US need to be assessed. A field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research and Education Center of Tennessee State University to investigate the effects of four varieties (OK2000, Berken, TSU-1, AAMU-1) and three planting densities (5, 10, and 15 cm spacing) on the ecophysiology and yield of mung bean. Results showed that the relative chlorophyll content, plant height, pod dry biomass, pod number, crop yield, and harvest index significantly varied among the varieties. Density only influenced transpiration, relative chlorophyll content, and plant dry biomass. OK2000 had 101.0% more pods per plant and a 42.4% higher harvest index and produced a 45.3% higher yield than other varieties, but no significant difference in yield was found among the other three varieties. This study demonstrated that the mung bean variety OK2000 with a high yield would be ideal for commercial production in the southeastern US.

Mung Bean, Plant Density, Ecophysiology, Growth, Yield, Legume

Christian, J. , Hui, D. , Kaur, N. , Kieffer, C. , Moghaddam, S. , Touray, A. , Borlay, J. , Blair, M. , Mentreddy, S. , Tegegne, F. and Illukpitiya, P. (2023) Effects of Variety and Planting Density on Mung Bean Eco-Physiology and Yield in the Southeastern US. Agricultural Sciences, 14, 898-914. doi: 10.4236/as.2023.147060.