When to Plant Edamame? A Guide to the Best Sowing Time

Edamame is nutritious and delicious. It can not only be served as a dish on the dining table, but also enjoyed as a snack between meals, and its market sales are very good. Many farmers grow edamame, so when should edamame be planted?

1. Edamame Planting Time

1. Early-maturing cultivation. The time is from late February to early March. Cold-frame seedling raising is generally used, with transplanting in late March and harvesting of tender pods from June to July. Varieties such as Siyuebai and Wuyuebai are often used.

2. Mid-to-late maturing cultivation. For summer planting of mid-maturing varieties, direct sowing is done from late April to mid-May, with harvest from July to August, using Liuyuebai or Liuyuehuang. For autumn late-maturing cultivation, direct sowing is done from June to July, with harvest from September to late October. In South China, autumn sowing can also be postponed to July to August, with harvest from September to November. Examples include Bayuebai and Hangzhou spiced edamame.

3. In southern China, according to the characteristics of different varieties, early and mid-to-late maturing varieties can be selected and combined to achieve production in all three seasons of spring, summer and autumn.

2. Edamame Cultivation Techniques

1. Soil conditions: flat terrain, good soil structure, a plot not prone to drought or waterlogging, requiring deep, loose, slightly acidic sandy loam. Continuous cropping on the same plot should be avoided.

2. Water: water should be controlled before and after emergence so that the edamame root system develops well. At the initial stage, let the edamame roots grow deep, generally to 50-60 cm. During the growth process, because it is the rainy season, water is generally not given. Only if there is no rain for two weeks should water be given. When watering, it should be done in the furrows, and it should not be filled all at once; it should be done in multiple rounds. After watering, once it can be walked on in the furrows after about 1 hour, that is enough. Once every 2-3 days is sufficient.

3. Fertilizer: edamame is the crop among all beans that should least use fertilizer, and no fertilizer is used during the growing period.

4. Thinning control: after the seeds germinate, when the edamame grows 2 true leaves (about 10 cm high), choose one robust plant to keep, and cut off the other two at the junction with the soil using scissors. For frozen processing, in order to increase yield, one or two plants may be left alternately. The ultimate goal is to make the edamame have many pods and large pods.

5. Temperature: the high temperature and high humidity in mid-August during the flowering period of edamame are very favorable for its growth, but if the nighttime temperature is higher than 25 degrees, it will lead to no pod setting or empty pods.

Edamame has very good market sales, and its cultivation and management are relatively simple, making it a crop suitable for widespread planting. If the sowing time is chosen well, three seasons of harvest can be achieved.