The Organic
Revival
Pulses · Legume

Growing moong

Vigna radiata · also called moongGreen gram, a short pulse grown for its small green grain. It is sown with the monsoon, and in the north also as a summer crop after wheat.

Cold desert: Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.The summers in Ladakh and Lahaul are too short and cool for moong, a warm season pulse that needs hot days to flower and fill pods.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
Moong plant with young green pods and pale yellow flowers among its leaves
Photo: Dinesh Valke · CC BY-SA 4.0
Not suited here

Not a crop for this region

The summers in Ladakh and Lahaul are too short and cool for moong, a warm season pulse that needs hot days to flower and fill pods.

Where it grows nearest

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Not suited here

  • Sow
  • Harvest
  • Today
  • Not suited here
Cold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiNot suited hereTemperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, Dehradun
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Cold desertNot suited here
Temperate HimalayaMid-May to JuneMid-August to September
Sub-tropical foothillsMid-March to 20 AprilOnset of monsoon to mid-July
North-west plains20 March to 10 AprilSecond half of July
Gangetic plainsMid-March to mid-AprilLate June to early July
North-east hills and valleysLate June to JulySeptember
Arid westFirst to third week of July
Central plateauLate June to early JulyMarch
Deccan plateauFirst half of June to 7 July
South interiorJune to July (Adipattam)September to October (Purattasipattam)December to January (Margazhi-Thai pattam)
West coastSeptember to early October, after the first paddy cropJanuary to early February, after the second paddy crop
East coastJune to July (Adipattam)September to October (Purattasipattam)December to January (Margazhi-Thai pattam)Third week of January to second week of FebruaryFebruary to March

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,2,3Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    6.5 to 7.5

    Well drained loam to sandy loam. Saline, alkaline or waterlogged soils do not suit it. In the Jammu region it grows on soils from sandy loam to heavy clay.

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    At least 6 hours a day

    Full sun in an open field. It does poorly under shade.

  • Temperature1,2Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    Grows best at 25 to 35 °C

    Frost: none tolerated.

    Monthly temperatures for the Cold desert aren't in the library yet.

Good neighbours1

Grows well with

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed1,2Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Keep seed from a healthy field with no yellow mosaic. Pull out sick plants early.

When the seed is ready

Harvest when about 80% of the pods are mature, or when the leaves drop and most pods turn greyish black.

Cleaning the seed

Cut the plants with a sickle rather than uprooting them, dry them and thresh.

Dry the grain well and store it in clean, closed bins. Watch for pulse beetle (dhora).

After the last picking2,3

After picking the pods of a summer crop, dig the plants into the soil before the next crop. PAU says burying the stover before rice cuts the nitrogen the rice needs by about a third.

Rotation

Fits after wheat or potato as a summer crop, and before wheat or raya as a kharif crop. PAU rotations include moong-wheat, summer moong-rice-potato and summer moong-maize-potato.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 4TNAU Agritech Portal: Crop production, Pulses, GreengramTamil Nadu Agricultural University, CoimbatoreRead the source
  2. 5TNAU Agritech Portal: Organic package of practices for green gramTamil Nadu Agricultural University, CoimbatoreRead the source
  3. 6AESA based IPM package: Black gram (urd) and green gram (moong)National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), Hyderabad, with the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Government of IndiaRead the source

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