Furry??? Hopefully you mean the pods, which are not eaten; the beans are popped out with a squeeze after cooking.

Soybeans can take a long time to produce, much longer than string beans... often 80-90 days. Looking at my records, most of my soybeans bloomed somewhere around 45-55 days. The flowers & pods are very tiny at first, so they can be hard to see. My observations were for Maturity Group II & below, which are adapted for my Northern latitudes. Soybeans are daylength sensitive, so they might perform differently in SoCal.

If you haven't seen flowers in 60 days after sowing, and the leaf cover is heavy, my first suspicion would be excess nitrogen in the soil. If you have been having cooler than normal temperatures (as many have this year) that could also be responsible, since soybeans are a warm-weather crop.

The tastiest varieties I have grown so far were "Karikachi 3", "Hatsutaka", and "Tengamine", all from Sakate Seed Company in Japan. Hard to find here commercially. "Oosodefuri" (also from Sakate) is carried by Peace Seeds, and has been my highest yielder. The best tasting that I've tried from U.S. companies were "Butterbean" (from Johnny's) and "Shirofumi" (from SSE).

In your neck of the woods, you might want to try the varieties carried by Kitazawa. They could be better adapted to your climate than the varieties bred for short seasons.

I've never had an edamame pod that wasn't furry.

Jim

Thanks for the varieties list...sounds good.

The plants actually do have pods, but they are empty. Is that normal and I should just let them fill out? (it that is the case, then very different from green beans).

I suspect excess nitrogen. The other nutrient levels are fine.

If you have pods, you should get beans. Edamame soybean pods take a very long time to fill out, about 45-50 days.

I have the same problem. The pods are 2-3inches long and they are flat - no bean inside. Zeedman, are you saying the bean will continue to develop inside the pod? From what I gather, I should be harvesting now when the pod is 2- 3 inches long?? The plants otherwise look really healthy.

Old thread, but I'm still here. ;-)

Kara, how long ago were the soybeans planted? Even the earliest varieties take 70-80 days to reach edamame stage, with 80-90 days (or longer) being most common for the majority of commercial varieties (such as those I listed earlier in this thread). Soybeans are self-pollinating, so if the plants are healthy, and you have 2-3" pods forming, you will get beans.

The pods are very flat initially, but take about a month to fill out. You can harvest the pods whenever they appear fat, but test a few first to see if the flavor is to your liking. Younger beans are sweeter & softer; the beans get firmer & develop more flavor as they mature.

Note that once the pods have fattened up, they will mature very quickly... and most plants in the row will mature all their pods at the same time. When the first pods begin to yellow, or when the leaves in the row begin to yellow, all plants should be harvested. If harvested when pods have yellowed, you can still eat them; but the beans will be more full-flavored, similar to limas... I actually prefer some of my darker-colored soybeans that way.