The plants that were damaged may have been shocked into flowering... but then, my early varieties are beginning to flower too.

Soybean flowering is primarily triggered by day length, so the DTM of a given variety will vary depending upon latitude. If planted later, the plants will still bloom at about the same time, but be smaller than normal. I've tried using early transplants vs. direct seeded, and the difference for a given variety was not significant... maybe 1 day gained for each 3 days started early. I am trying that experiment again this year with one of my later varieties, where half of the row was direct seeded a week after the starts were transplanted. At present, the direct seeded plants are about 2/3 the size of the transplants. I'll try to come back to this thread with the final results.

Yes, later soybean varieties generally get larger before flowering, and with that larger leaf area, can support a larger number of pods. As a rule, soybeans with a maturity just within your growing season will produce the highest yield. If you search for "soybean maturity group map", it will show the Maturity Group most suited for your location. Most of the edamame varieties commonly sold in the U.S. are in Maturity Group I or below, and will mature in all but the coolest or shortest seasons.

For those in the more southern latitudes, you might want to consult with the local Extension office for variety recommendations. The University of Illinois Urbana had a breeding program that developed edamame cultivars in some of the mid-range Maturity Groups, all of which were named "Gardensoy" followed by numbers for the appropriate Maturity Group. They were giving away seed to gardeners at one time; I obtained two varieties from them, both of which are high quality. I don't know if they still send out seed, but for those with longer seasons, it might be worth looking into.

Thanks. That is what I thought. Wild life makes things quite difficult.

The other question I have is that, what is the proper spacing for different varieties to prevent seeds from crossing. I remember soybean does not require much spacing, like 6-8" apart. But just like to make sure. The main purpose is to save seeds, so I do not want to defeat the sole purpose.

The mid-early variety has set beans. One of the early-late variety is not much behind. It is also good to see both white and purple flowers.

Here are some of the edamame pods. Not sure if they are ready to pick. Seems still early and days away.

It looks like those pods are getting close, and need a little more time to fatten up - maybe another week, plus or minus a few days. You can harvest them any time after the pods look full. For me, the best indicator is to watch for the pods or leaves to begin changing color; at that point, most of the pods are ripe, and should be harvested. The optimal harvest window is very short, the flavor changes rapidly when the pods change color. If in doubt, sample a few pods every few days, and harvest when they suit your taste preferences.

I have been watching and none of them have had any change of size and colors for several days. So I'm going to wait and see. I had to move some of the pots around, so the flowers do not cross. I just move the flowering plants to a different location, then bring them back. The GardenSoy 32 has grown to 36" tall. My largest variety. They probably grow taller in planted in ground. Maybe next year I can just grow one variety and erect rabbit fence.

Just picked my first batch. I did not uproot the plants since I still see quite some pods not ready yet. I only picked the ready ones. Hope they are not past the prime. I do not see the change of color yet.

Even those pods could use a couple more days... you'll know when you cook them. The beans should be very sweet & tender at that stage, though.

Good to know. I cooked some and they are tender. I keep a single plant for seeds and I'll observe it. It is good to have some harvest. I planted some common soybeans in ground and they were all taken by animals.

Do we have a number of edamame plants for each family member? Just in general. I know some people like to freeze them for storage.....

The number of plants per person is hard to define. The yield per plant can be affected by so many factors: variety, spacing, soil fertility, date planted, hours of direct sun, weather, etc.

Edamame soybeans perform best when widely spaced, which results in more branches, more pods, and more 2- or 3-seeded pods. With 6" spacing, I've had as many as 100 pods per plant; at 2-3" spacing, 20-40 pods could be expected. For early varieties, 20-30 pods per plant might be typical. So the number of plants per person would depend upon how many pods one person would consume.

I do freeze a lot of edamame. We boil or steam the pods for about 5 minutes (testing often for doneness), quickly cool them under running water to (to stop the cooking process), then shell & freeze the beans. The rows are usually 10-15' long, so it takes time to shell all of them, and they must be processed promptly. We often have family or friends over to help, having an "edamame party". Eat some, freeze some, eat some, freeze some... it's easy to find volunteers. ;-)

Costco sells frozen edamame with shell. I figure they are still lightly cooked, cooled and froze. So we do not plan to shell them before storage.

For small batch, we do shell them and use them in dishes.

We do have a lot garden area, just those animals, They all love soybeans. I planted both black and yellow soybeans and they were all devoured by the animals.

I waited more than a week and picked some today. They are fuller and very tasty. They still have not lost any flavor after so many days. The seed plant I saved still has not changed much. The pods picked the first time are probably not as full as the recent ones.

The edamame still looks green, no change to the color of the beans.

Another update.

Now I'm into the late varieties. I think those are my best ones, particularly Gardensoy 32 and "September Chill". In pots, they are 36"+ tall. The "Sept. Chill is even later.

Left is "Sept. Chill" and the right is GardenSoy 32.

Last two photos are "Sept. Chill". It has green seeds.

You must have a really long growing season, if you can get dry seed from those, with flowers just now appearing. You have better chances of getting some edamame.

I harvested the first of my edamame soybeans (Fledderjohn) last week, and had enough to share with the family, with some let go for seed. The plants are about 24-28" tall. Dry seed started today, most of the seed should dry down within a week... so about 2 weeks after edamame stage.

Like the soybeans in your photos, Gardensoy 12 is also tall (about 36") and has a good pod set, considering it is growing in part shade. It is still much later than the developer stated it should be. Gardensoy 12 is supposed to be Maturity Group I; but I have soybeans in Maturity Group II - planted the same day - that are further along in development. This is the third time I've grown it; and I even requested a 2nd batch of seed from them, in case the wrong seed was sent in error - no change. It takes my entire season to mature even when planted early (as it was this year) and appears to be at least Maturity Group II, and maybe somewhere between II & III.

This is just my 2nd year growing edamame/soy. It is mainly to renew seeds. We did not consume much.

So far the variety we like is Sapporo Midori. Not sure if this is the same as Giant Midori. The pods mature slowly and very full. One has turned yellow, but 3 others are still somehow green, but full.

Others ripen very quickly. Maybe I planted them late, so they rushed to?

To dry them for seeds, should I just let them dry on the plants? Most of the leaves have fallen.

Those last two varieties could grow taller if planted in ground. Also they are planted tight, like 7-8 plants in a 15 gallon pot. Or 4"-5" spacing.

Next year I still need to plan the dates. Most of the articles say to plant them in June when it is warm. That may be late for the early varieties like Envy etc.

Sapporo Midori is one of my favorites; it has very large seeds for such an early variety (it is in Maturity Group 00) and fairly short bushes. I suspect from the description of Giant Midori (or Midori Giant) that they are the same variety under different names. It would be the first variety I would recommend to a new soybean grower.

Once the leaves have fallen, the pods will begin to dry rapidly. If conditions are dry & there are no problems with rodents, the pods can be allowed to dry on the plant. There will usually be a few immature pods from late flowers; but I will harvest when 90% of the pods are dry, by cutting off the whole plant at the ground. I then tie the plants together, hang them in a dry location, and shell the seeds when the stems have turned brown.

When drying pods on the plant, watch for shattering - the pods splitting open on their own. If that happens, you might need to pull off the individual pods as they dry. The same can be said if wet weather is expected, since dry or nearly dry seeds can spoil if exposed to extended rainfall. Watch for rodents too, since they like to steal soybeans just before they dry.

I've dealt with both rodents & wet weather this year... in fact I was pulling dry pods from Fledderjohn today, between rains. What I thought would be a passing shower turned into a 10-hour, off-and-on rainstorm. I dried the pods & placed them under a fan, they appear to be undamaged.

I have your edamame list. But it was not formed well. I'll try to sort it out about the maturity group. I did not know the Sapporo Midori is in group 0.

I pulled a few plants since they are yellow. I put them in a produce (peach) boardbox to dry. Most of the plants are still in ground to dry. I can pull them if we have any heavy rain.

They are planted in pot and are netted against deer. I've not seen any rodent damage. Not sure if they will climb up the big black plastic pots. Could be.

Next year I'll probably just plant a couple varieties, each in one maturity group. So I do not have to worry so much about getting crossed.

I planted some yellow and black produce soybeans. But they were all taken by the animals. Not sure about varieties. So I'll probably treat them as mid varieties.

GW is not working properly. Tries to post twice and no post.

Here is the last harvest of GardenSoy 32.

"September Chill" is still going strong. Hope to get a good harvest.

Gardensoy 12 is just beginning to dry down. As always it is a race with the frost, regardless of how early it is planted... due to day length sensitivity, it flowers at the same time regardless. The transplants were started 3 weeks before the plants which were direct seeded, and there is less than a week's difference between them now. It looks like all of the seed will mature, barring an early frost.

All the rest of my soybeans have now dried & been harvested, except for Gardensoy 12 and one more. That latecomer should have already matured, but was stunted by weed pressure for about 1/2 of the summer.

So GardenSoy 12 is also a late season variety?

So far, I like Sapporo Midori the best. The ripening period is longer and it stays green for a long time. So the picking windows is long. The seeds are large and not that hard as the GardenSoy 32. It ripens so quickly. FledderJohn seems good too. Next time I'm going to pick GardenSoy 32 earlier. Envy is also very early and tender. But the seeds are smaller.

Do you see any benefits of planting late variety early? Or at the same time planting other varieties?

Late varieties should be planted as early as possible, to maximize their productivity. I have to admit though, there was very little difference in yield between the two plantings of the late variety, 3 weeks apart.

To judge by my experiments, there is little to no benefit for delayed planting of early varieties either. I plant all of them at the same time.

"So GardenSoy 12 is also a late season variety?"

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I suspect that there has been a mixup somewhere along the line, either from Urbana, or on my end. Based upon its maturity, Gardensoy 12 acts more like Gardensoy 24, which I also grow. Because I've ordered Gardensoy 12 twice, with the same results, I believe Urbana may have mislabeled it. I've yet to grow them both in the same year, which would give me a side-by-side comparison.

This is cool. I planted my edamame on 5/23. But had some setback due to animals. I think that is the proper time in my zone.

Somehow I believe early season varieties are tender and have a longer ripening season. Maybe I just have very limited samples.

Last batch of edamame "September Chill". The harvest is decent. Not sure if some flowers aborted. It may be better suited for warmer climate? Not sure about it.

I harvested the dry seeds of Gardensoy 12 today. In reference to the two plantings that were about 2 weeks apart, the 2nd planting was 5-7 days later for edamame, but nearly the same for dry seed. So the 2nd planting caught up with the first. There is little to no apparent difference in dry seed yield.

This is good to know. I also looked at my last few plants. Some are huge and some are small. But they ripen at about the same time. The pods are not much different. Just like what you said.

I just tasted the "Setpebmer Chill" edamame I collected. I'm surprised that they are very tender. Maybe should have waited two more days. But some leaves already started to change color. The pods are much tender than the GardenSoy 34 I harvested prior.

I was e-strolling through Project Gutenburg the other day and stumbled across this. I know Zeedman has been growing soybeans for years. I thought you folks might enjoy it.

Let's Use Soybeans (1914)

Thanks, rdback, for the link.

Interesting, although somewhat out of date. I recognized none of the edamame varieties quoted, but looked them up; they are smaller than many of the modern varieties. The recipes look interesting, I will have to try a couple of them in the future. I was a little disappointed that they did not delve into processed soy products, like tofu.

Perhaps Project Gutenburg was the predecessor to the NSRL (National Soybean Research Laboratory) which is run out of the U of Illinois Urbana - and which offered the Gardensoy line of edamame cultivars to gardeners for several years.

With the pending rain for several days, I just pulled all the "September Chill" edamame pods. This concludes my 2020 edamame season. This is more of a seed renewal and trial season. Due to wild animal pressure, all my edamame planting were in containers. This limits the planting in terms of quantify and varieties.

Of the varieties I planted,

Envy: I originally thought this was GardenSoy 24. So I planted them late. This turns out to be one of the earliest varieties. So my yield was small due to late planting. The pods are on the small to medium size. Taste is very good. This is a keeper.

Sapporo Midori: This is a early-mid variety. It is surprising that the green pods stayed green for a long time. This extends the harvest time to a long window. The pods are medium to medium+. Taste is excellent. I think this is my standard of edamame. It is the best from my limited trials.

Fledderjohn, Natsu Kurakake and GL 2216/84: Those are mid-early varieties. I have very limited plantings. I only tried some Fledderjohn and the taste is good. Since the trials were very limited, I can't provide much opinions about them. The pod size and plant size are on the average level.

Gardensoy 32: This is a late variety. The plant size is large, very productive. The pod size is medium to large. The ripening window is short. So do not wait too long to pick the tender pods. The taste is good, but not as clean taste of the Sapporo Midori. It is also not that so sweet and nutty flavor like Sapporo Midori. Maybe it should be picked days earlier.

September Chill: Very late variety. The pod is green and large. The plant is large and very productive. So if you can manage the climate, this is a good keeper. The edamame ripening window is also short, but seems longer than that of Gardensoy 32. But the fresh soybean pods can stay for a long time. They can still be picked to use in cooking. For me, this is a keeper.

For next season, I plan to continue to grow Envy, Sapporo Midori and September Chill.. I'd like to grow some mid season varieties. I suspect most of the GardenSoy line may taste all similar and more on the Soybean side other than edamame side. Still like to trial them.