Edamame
Glycine max
Vegetable soybean, harvested green, and the whole planting comes ready within about a week.
A very narrow harvest window
Pods go from underfilled to starchy in about a week, and the whole planting matures together. This is the defining fact about growing edamame: plan to pick and process it all at once, or stagger sowings two weeks apart.
Sow direct in warm soil
Soil at 60F or above, one inch deep, four inches apart. Like other legumes they dislike transplanting. Soybean-specific inoculant helps if you have never grown them, since the right bacteria may not be present.
Do not feed nitrogen
They fix their own once nodulated. Extra nitrogen gives tall leafy plants and fewer pods.
Water through pod fill
Even moisture from flowering to filling is what determines whether the pods are plump. A dry spell at that stage gives thin, poorly filled pods that are not worth picking.
Harvest whole plants
When most pods are plump and still bright green, pull the entire plant and strip the pods - much faster than picking individually. Any pods yellowing at the base mean you are already at the late edge of the window.
Pests
Japanese beetles skeletonise the leaves in midsummer; hand-pick into soapy water and avoid pheromone traps, which attract more than they catch. Stink bugs damage developing seeds. Deer and rabbits will graze young plants.
Cooking
Boil or steam pods in salted water for four to five minutes and eat the beans from the pod. The pods themselves are not eaten. Raw soybeans are not palatable and should be cooked.
Storage
Best the day they are picked. Blanch and freeze in the pod for storage - they hold quality for months and are one of the better freezer vegetables.
- Days to harvest
- 75-95
- Spacing
- 4 in
- Row spacing
- 24 in
- Sun
- Full
- pH
- 6.0-7.0
- Soil temp
- 60F+
- Harvest window
- ~1 week
- Yield
- ~1 lb per 3 ft row