Glycine max
Soybean
Common names: Soy, Edamame
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 8 cm, rows 40 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- May–Jun
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 1 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Public Domain · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The soybean requires warmth, but thanks to newer early-ripening varieties it now also thrives in mild DACH regions. When harvested immature and green the pods are a popular snack as edamame; when fully ripe they provide protein-rich seeds. Like all legumes it fixes nitrogen in the soil.
Care instructions
Sow the seeds only from mid-May to June into warm soil at a full-sun location; at first planting a rhizobium inoculant helps nitrogen fixation. Keep the soil evenly moist during flowering and pod filling. Harvest the pods for edamame when green and plump, or allow them to fully ripen and yellow for dry beans.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMay–Jun
HarvestSep–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 12 °C, ideally 22 °C
- Days to sprout
- 6 to 12 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 3 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Give soybeans a deep, light to medium-heavy soil that warms up quickly in spring, holds water well and still stays aerated. Loamy, humus-rich sites are ideal. Avoid waterlogged, compacted, very sandy or boggy soils and keep the pH in the slightly acidic to neutral range, because the nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria work best there.
Legumes collect nitrogen via nodule bacteria and are an ideal preceding crop for heavy feeders. They themselves need a break of about 4 years in the same place.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring before sowing (March/April), work mature compost shallowly into the top layer of soil. This improves the structure and supplies the plant with phosphorus and potassium. You deliberately do without nitrogen: as a legume, the soybean largely covers its own nitrogen needs through its symbiosis with nodule bacteria, and extra nitrogen suppresses nodule formation. If you are growing soy for the first time, inoculate the seed with the matching nodule bacteria before sowing, so that the symbiosis starts up reliably.
Overwintering
The soybean is annual and dies back completely after the harvest in autumn. There is nothing to overwinter. Harvest the beans before the first frost, compost the plants afterwards and next year sow again only after the Ice Saints in mid-May, when the soil is warm enough.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
Soybeans are propagated exclusively by direct sowing or by raising them beforehand. For direct sowing, wait until the soil is at least 10 to 12 °C. In Central European locations that is usually the case after the Ice Saints in mid-May. Insert the seeds 3 to 4 cm deep in loose, well-drained soil and keep a row spacing of 30 to 50 cm and 10 to 15 cm between plants in the row. To raise them beforehand from early April, you can sow one or two seeds each in small pots and set the young plants outside after about three weeks, as soon as frost no longer threatens. In warmth (15 to 20 °C), soybeans germinate in 10 to 20 days. A full-sun, wind-sheltered site is important; in Central Europe deliberately choose early-ripening varieties (maturity group 000 to 0). As a self-pollinator (outcrossing rate under 1 %), the soybean yields largely true-to-type seed: if you want to collect seed for next year, leave individual pods to ripen and dry fully on the plant until they rattle; then the seeds can be stored.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example CarrotCeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCoriander and 21 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example CourgettePickling cucumberButternutHokkaidoPatissonSpaghetti squash and 13 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example ChivesWild daffodilRocamboleElephant garlicRed OnionShallot and 9 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Soybean yourself
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