Arizsun, you are just the person I have been hoping to meet here. :-)

I am very interested in soybeans, including those grown for edamame. I collect them, and already have several cultivars from Sakate (Oosodefuri, Shirofumi, Hatsutaka, Tengamine, Sapporo Midori) all of which are green seeded. So far, I am very impressed with Sakate's varieties, since all the ones I have tried will mature here in time for me to collect dry seed.

There are quite a few black, brown, gray, or bi-colored soybeans in my collection, but few of them are good as edamame. Mostly this is because of their small size. It's really too bad, since several of them are over 50% protein. Probably better suited for tofu or fermented soybean products.

The larger black soybeans I've tried so far seem to require more time to ripen than the others, so I'm not sure how many are suitable for my location... but I would like to try those with faster maturity. The large green and yellow types I grow are earlier, which is why I grow so many of them. The brown types I have are even faster, but their seed size is small... if there are large-seeded brown soybeans, I am very interested in trying them also.

Because I save my own seed and have a short growing season, any soybeans I grow must dry completely within 120-130 days or less.

I would really like to make arrangements to order seed through you. You don't enable email, so I hope you will contact me through the email link on my Gardenweb Member Page.

zeedman: I sent you an email through gardenweb. if you have not received it yet, send me an email. I enabled it on "my page"

I have a question about edamame vs. regular farm raised soybeans. Are they the same?

Edamame is bred for large size, among other attributes, with makes them desirable for fresh eating.

Regular soy beans, which are processed in bulk, don't need to be large. For that purpose, yield per acre is more important and they exceed edamame type beans in yield.

Jim

Arizsun, I've already emailed you.

Ditto on Jimster's comments. Edamame soybeans have tender skin, large seed size, and good flavor. Their yield, however, is not as high as field soybeans; there seems to be a trade-off between seed size & yield.

For their part, field soybeans can have much higher protein content, some over 50% of dry weight. Edamame soybeans average 40% protein dry weight, and just under 20% oil.

This is not to say that field soybeans can't be used for edamame - only that the results will be unpredictable, since they were not bred for that purpose. Field soybeans are better roasted as soynuts, or used to make tofu.

FYI... the vast majority of field soybeans grown in the U.S. are now GMO (genetically modified); so if that matters to you, then you might want to buy bulk soybeans from an organic source. Or grow your own - they are as easy as bush beans.

I am also interested in flavorful edamame varieties. I bought the black and brown varieties from Kitizawa and am ready to plant. I do think I will get edamame, but not sure if I have enough time left to mature the long season varieties. I also have Mooncake from a local edamame grower. Mooncake is supposed to grow up to 6 foot tall, so it is good for smothering weeds, and as a forage crop. The grower tells me it is a very sweet bean.

I would like to place an order with Sage Thymes heirloom seeds, as the have 50 soy varieties. I wish there was more information on each variety, though a few are mentioned as good edamame. The Japanese seed company linked above by Arizsun is very interesting, and I would very much like to grow the improved varieties. Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese and they don't have the site set up for English speaking customers.

Anyone out there finding good edamame that they can recommend?

Does any one have a source for the Moon cake variety of edamame?