soybeans

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donguri
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Post by donguri »

Does anyone here have experience growing soybeans? Not for use as edamame, but for the dried bean.

I seeded a couple rows of soybeans in mid-June and they came up beautifully, flowered and produced a lot of pods. The seed info said they were well suited to miso-making. Now, they're near the end, I assume, starting to tilt over and leaves are starting to wither and turn brown, buuuuut..... THE PODS ARE EMPTY!!! How can this be? Not just a few pods, but pretty much ALL of them! At a quick glance, they appear to have beans in them, but nothing. I thought maybe they need more time, but they haven't improved, now a lot of the pods are actually getting brown and falling off.

I'm totally disappointed. Sure, it was ultimately an experiment, I wanted to see what kind of a yield I could get and hopefully have enough for our homemade miso making, which at this point is less than 2kg dry weight. Doable, I thought.

Any ideas? Similar situations?

Thanks!

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gonbechan
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Post by gonbechan »

did you notice a lot of stink bugs in your garden?
They can suck out the beans without really damaging the pods.

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Post by Shizuman »

I grow soy every year for miso and i haven't had this issue myself yet sounds really rough mate!
I get some stink bugs but not many but as Gonbechan says that might be it. Id be keen to know myself.
Might do some digging!
Sorry to hear that though its a real bummer

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gonbechan
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donguri
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Post by donguri »

gonbechan wrote:
Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:22 pm
did you notice a lot of stink bugs in your garden?
They can suck out the beans without really damaging the pods.
No, no stink bugs to speak of in the garden, or really any critters in particular on the soybean plants.
But good to know, thanks!

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Post by donguri »

Shizuman wrote:
Fri Sep 10, 2021 6:44 pm
I grow soy every year for miso and i haven't had this issue myself yet sounds really rough mate!
I get some stink bugs but not many but as Gonbechan says that might be it. Id be keen to know myself.
Might do some digging!
Sorry to hear that though its a real bummer
Total bummer.

Any particular tips on growing soybeans for miso? This was my first try.
Thanks!

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Post by Shizuman »

The only things I've picked up so far is, try no to let them get blown down or too much dirt splashed up on the foliage, last year I got a fair bit of disease that way, the other is, if your making a lot figure out how your going to hull them all, it's a long task! I'm still reasonably new myself.

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Zasso Nouka
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Post by Zasso Nouka »

I'd also like to know the answer as we gave up growing soybeans because some larvae was getting into the pods and eating the beans inside so when you popped a pod open it was a bit of a gamble if it would be ok or filled with little maggots.

One farmer I know swears by growing them super early initially under tunnels to protect them from cold. The idea there being they get going and finish before their pests become a problem but they are for eating as edamame. Another farmer grows for miso and they plant theirs very late, perhaps that avoids the peak season of pests ? Both grow organically without pesticides.

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Post by donguri »

Just spent the day dodging rain and trying to accomplish even the smallest tasks in the garden without much success.

The soybeans aren't getting any better, in fact pods seem to be disappearing, so I started to pull some of the plants up to make way for the next planting of what, I'm not yet sure. It was then I noticed that at the base of the plant, the stalks seem to be kind of white, and the roots had little clusters of beige-tan colored pellets attached to them. I didn't get all of them pulled up (it started raining again) but all of the ones I pulled up had the same pellets. Doesn't seem right, and something in my brain suggested I'd read about or seen a picture of something like this before, and it suggested nematodes. A little online search would confirm that in all likelihood, my soybeans were devastated by root knot nematodes.

Now what do I do??!!

Sure, some more researching and reading, searching through the forum here, but in the short term, do I need to be worried about planting in those two rows of soil? Is it best to burn the plants, as opposed to composting them? Is my entire Hatake going to be under seige?

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Post by Zasso Nouka »

I'm not an expert on this so take what I'm about to say with a large pinch of salt.

The nodules formed by nitrifying bacteria on legumes look quite similar to the nodules produced by root knot nematodes. The only way I can think of checking, without laboratory tests is to grow a non-legume crop there that has a fine root system and check it's roots after. If you find nodules it's nematodes if no nodules it was nitrifying bacteria and you can leaves the roots in the soil to feed subsequent crops.

Do you have a different crop adjacent to the soybeans that you could check the roots on ?

If it is nematodes there are some cover crops you can grow that they can't feed on so they will starve to death but I can't for the life of me remember which ones they are, I think it might be Italian Ryegrass.

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