Black Pearls of Japan

[castanea]

Jan 30, 2011 3:48:00 GMT -5 happyskunk said:

Soybean store www.sagethymes.com/soy.html

Great link. Thanks

[blueadzuki]

well in case anyone was curios here is a pic of the two "mico-soy" seeds I have (they're the greenish ones) along with a few of my other smaller soybeans (I actually find quite a few small seeded soybeans from time to time in my searches, the green one's were just exceptionial eveny by "small" standards C:\Documents and Settings\Jeremy\My Documents\My Pictures\microsoy.jpg[/img]

Attachments:

[blueadzuki]

Jan 30, 2011 9:51:56 GMT -5 ottawagardener said:

Yikes! Shirohana Mame is a big soy bean with an unusual shape.

Actually, it may not be a soybean at all (though I do have soybeans that are that elongated shape, if not that size) . when I went web searching, Kitazawa (who sells the seeds) claims it is a swordbean, Canavalia gladiata [/i www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_234-9.html if this is the case, care shoud be taken in its consumption, as sword beans are mildly toxic in large amounts, even when cooked. The picture of a swod bean seed appears to match up at least in profile (happyskunk since you have the beans, you can give in the confirming info, is the hilum scar really, really long, like almost from one end of the side of the bean to the other?)

[castanea]

I don't think Shirohana Mame is a soy bean or a sword bean. It's just a bean that was being used as a size reference in the photo. Kitazawa lists it as a "flower bean" which is a runner bean.
www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_189-7.html

[happyskunk]

I have only seen Shirohana Mame listed as Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) and Phaseolus coccineus (runner bean). It looks like a runner bean to me. I have not eaten any. They did not really produce many seeds. I might have 40 seeds from 12 plants. They did not start producing beans until September and then some did not fully mature by November. I would not recommend it unless you have a longer growing season or you are trying to cross with an earlier variety to get larger beans.

[blueadzuki]

Feb 20, 2011 23:50:26 GMT -5 castanea said:

I don't think Shirohana Mame is a soy bean or a sword bean. It's just a bean that was being used as a size reference in the photo. Kitazawa lists it as a "flower bean" which is a runner bean.
www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_189-7.html

Oh oops I actually read a little wrong the swrod bean Kitazawa is listing is Shironata Mame. www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_234-9.html