Edamame Growing patterns.

15 years ago

I bought edamame from Tradewind seeds this year to try out. The line item is no longer available but I suspect it might be midori...

Out of the 15 seeds I planted, 7 came up. They have started producing pods.

Anyway my question is this: How do soybeans produce? Do they keep puting out pods until the plants die or are they a one time bloom and set plant? I am want to save back all the seeds I get from this first group for my next planting...

Next: can you get a double season like some beans and replant right away? Or am I better off just holding the seeds until next spring. I live in north Louisiana and we have a fairly long growing season, but I do not want to sacrifice what seeds I save on an experiment...

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Comments (4)

zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
15 years ago
Soybeans generally flower all at once, and the majority of the pods will ripen at close to the same time. For edamame, you usually pull the whole plant when the pods have fattened, but before the pods begin to dry.

For dry seed, you should easily get 50 seeds per plant, more if widely spaced & well watered.

I'm not sure about double cropping, since I never grew soybeans when I lived in SoCal... and live in the "frozen tundra" now. ;-) It might be an interesting experiment. Personally, I do not think that it would succeed, since flowering is influenced by day length.

Most bush beans have little to no day length sensitivity, so it's possible to plant them after the soybeans are done... but I would suggest a non-leguminous plant instead, since the nitrogen left behind by the soybeans might cause the same bean problems as over-fertilization.
pjames
Original Author
15 years ago
Well, I will not get anywhere near 50 seeds per plant. I'll be lucky to get 10. I'll wait then until the pods are fully mature to pick any so I will have something to pick for next year. (paid too much for what I have) I might look for a better source for different types of edamame while I am at it.
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jimster
15 years ago
"Well, I will not get anywhere near 50 seeds per plant."

I would think you could get 16 pods per plant. At 3 seeds per pod that would yield 48 seeds per plant.

Jim
zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
15 years ago
It's best to grow a soybean bred for your latitude & growing season. Most of the soybeans sold for use as edamame were bred for northern latitudes.

If "LA" stands for Louisiana, then soybeans in the USDA Maturity Groups VI through VIII will do best for you. You might be able to find some varieties to trial through your local Extension office. There is a Hawaiian variety often offered in trade on forums, called "Kahala" or "Kohala", that has been reported as doing well in the South.

You might also want to try some of the soybean varieties bred by the NSRL, from Jimster's link several years back. Those with the higher maturities, such as Maturity group IV, would likely perform better for you than most varieties offered commercially. They don't appear to send out free seed any more, so you might have to pay a small sample fee.

Here is a link that might be useful: NSRL soybeans