Preferred Edamame

[Leenstar]

I'm looking for an Edamame for next year. I grew Shirofumi a couple of years and need to replenish my seeds. Any opinions of best variety and why?

Anyone got any to trade of favorite variety?

[ferdzy]

I don't have seeds, I'm afraid, but I've grown Envy a few times and liked it. I have noticed with some of the ones that dry to a colour other than green, that if I don't get them at exactly the right time, they are starting to change colour. You may regard this as a problem or you may regard it as a guidelline to make sure you pick them early enough...

[blueadzuki]

Nov 27, 2012 9:35:47 GMT -5 ferdzy said:

I don't have seeds, I'm afraid, but I've grown Envy a few times and liked it. I have noticed with some of the ones that dry to a colour other than green, that if I don't get them at exactly the right time, they are starting to change colour. You may regard this as a problem or you may regard it as a guidelline to make sure you pick them early enough...

I've sort of had the same problem in reverse with my "experimental" edamames . With the exception of plant 11 the first year*, all of the seeds left the pods completely green (no matter what color the initial seed was, or how long I left the pods on). As they dried, the seeds tended to darken and get closer to the black skin that most of them were supposed to have. However most of them didn't get all the way, and even the few that did darken over the whole seed coat tended to be a lot lighter in color than the initial seed (more often a shade of muddy greeny brown than the jet black of the parents, and never really dried down right (they always wound up with big dimples in the side, and so soft even when dried I coud break them in half with my fingernails). Even that plant in the mass growth that somehow managed to evade both my and the predators sight so long that it completely dried down had seeds like that. Of the three test edamame plants I managed to get seed off of this previos year** one (probably a green seeded one) had seed that dried down to a flat green (thogh even here the green was a much darker, more yellowy color than the milky green most of my planted green soybeans go in as) one produced green seeds with a brown patch over the hypocotly and the last produced greenish brown seeds with brownish green saddles (similar in pattern to the "Agate" edamame soybean seeds of change sells. I'm beignning to think that, on top of my difficulties keeping soybean plants from being universally devoured by critters, I have a year that, while OK for growing soybean, and even getting them to a state where I can eat them as edamame, does not allow the seeds to fully mature to the point I can save them and grow them the following year.
Actually that's probably my best reccomendation for a named strain. Out of all the named edamame strains I have grown, Agate probably did the best for me. It's not all that large (or productive) but it is quite tough.



*plant 11 (which I nicknamed "speckled knife" produced beans that, when fresh sort of looked like tiny reversed cranberry beans, bearing pink skins with greeny white speckles which when dried darken down to the black seeds with gold speckles I'm used to)

** I did get one seed from a fourth test plant that year but that one was so immature at harvest I 1. have no clue what color it was supposed to be (It dried to a dirty yellow brown, so probably white but not certainly) and 2. I really don't have a lot of hope it will be plantable as a viable seed next season.

[Leenstar]

So thats one for Agate, one for Envy.

Anyone with any experience with Fiskeby?

[Walk]

We've been growing Sayamusume and also trialed Tankuro (black seed) this year. There was some flavor difference but we'll probably keep on with the Sayamusume because it does well here. As for saving seed, if you can get the beans to the point of being mature enough for eating as edamame, try pulling the entire plant and hanging it in a well ventilated spot out of the sun and away from all the critters and the pods will continue to ripen and dry down in a protected environment. This has worked for us when rodents (chipmunks, voles, and 13 striped ground squirrels) have started hauling away the crop. One year, however, the chipmunks got into the porch where the plants were and stole most of the seeds. I later found a stash of them in a flower bed and managed to recover some.

[Leenstar]

I had been saving seeds when I had a community garden plot space but the plants I had hoped to save for seed all got eaten/taken by various critters. Seed I managed to save didn't germinate well. That why I'm looking to start again.

Shirofumi was good and productive but I figured I'd ask around for people's favorites with more experience than one variety.

[paquebot]

I grew Be Sweet this year and liked it. This was the first time ever with edamame so no idea if it were the best or worse. We ate them several times as a shelled side dish and some of the dried ones in the soup bean mix. Lives up to its name as being sweet.

Martin

[bonsaioutlaw]

I grew "Envy" and "Fledderjohn" this year. First time for edaname for me. I liked the "Fledderjohn" better.

[zeedman]

Kind of an old thread, but this is my first chance to comment. I grew several edamame cultivars in 2012:
"Cha Kura Kake", "Gardensoy 24", "Early Hakucho", "Kosodiguri Extra Early", "Natsu Kurakake", "Sapporo Midori", and "Tengamine". "Gardensoy 24" is a public domain release from the U of Illinois Urbana, the rest are originally from the USDA.

My favorites were "Tengamine" for flavor, "Gardensoy 24" for bean size & yield, "Natsu Kurakake" for its bi-colored seeds, and "Sapporo Midori" for best early variety.

Of commercial varieties, the best I've tried have been "Butterbean" (from Johnny's), "Sayamusume" (from Territorial), and "Shirofumi" (from SSE). I tried "Black Pearl" also, but found the skin on the beans to be a little thicker than I like. "Karikachi" is an outstanding variety for flavor, I saw it listed in a 2013 catalog, but can't remember which one... well worth growing if you can find it.

[Leenstar]

Zeedman- Where did you get the Gardensoy 24?

How did it compare to the commercial varieties. I'm about to place and order through seed savers and thought I should try something other than Shirofumi, though I really liked it when I grew it.

[zeedman]

Leenstar, I obtained the seed for "Gardensoy 24" several years ago from the National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL), located at the University of Illinois / Urbana. It was one of about a dozen edamame cultivars developed & offered by Dr. Bernard, who was on staff there. At the time, they were offering seed free to any gardeners who requested it. All of their cultivars are public domain, and non-GM.

Theresa Herman is now the contact point. They still send seed samples to gardeners, although I am not sure if it is still free. It's worth mentioning that some of the Gardensoy cultivars offered by the NSRL are in Maturity Group V, which is acclimated to the mid-South. They will probably perform better in those areas than most of the edamame cultivars currently offered commercially, which are Maturity Group I & below (northern U.S. & southern Canada). A map on the link below shows the soybean Maturity Groups & the latitudes to which they are best adapted.

The NSRL site is probably the definitive reference for edamame (and for soybeans in general) and I highly recommend it: www.nsrl.illinois.edu/general/edamame.html#gardensoyavailable

"Gardensoy 24" has done very well for me. The plants are vigorous, upright, and bear heavily... very heavily if spaced 4-6" apart, which also improves the number of beans per pod. The beans are very large, comparable with "Sayamusume" or "Sapporo Midori", and have good flavor & texture. It is, however, a little later than most of the main-season commercial edamame varieties. I am still able to harvest dry seed reliably before frost.

[littleminnie]

I liked Beer Friend way better than Envy. Hopefully I will have plenty of seed to trade next year.

[littleminnie]

Darnit. Fedco subbed Shirofumi for Beer Friend. I only saved like 50 seeds last year so I guess they will be mixed.

[zeedman]

Strange. I checked many of the companies that previously listed "Beer Friend", and most were sold out. Stokes still lists small packets as being available. On the plus side, "Shirofumi isn't a bad substitute. Vesey's is substituting it with "Envy", which is not comparable.

This reminds me of what happened with "Sieva" lima a couple years ago, where everyone suddenly was out of stock. Makes you wonder how centralized some of our seed production has become.

[littleminnie]

Today I shucked the Beer Friend I saved but it is only like 100. So I guess with growing both I may get some crossing.