Abstract
Edamame is a food-grade soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] that is harvested immature between the R6 and R7 reproductive stages. To be labeled as a premium product, the edamame market demands large pod size and intense green color. A staggered harvest season is critical for the commercial industry to post-harvest process the crop in a timely manner. Currently, there is little information to assist in predicting the optimum time to harvest edamame when the pods are at their collective largest size and greenest color. The objectives of this study were to assess the impact of cultivar, planting date, and harvest date on edamame color, pod weight, and a newly minted Edamame Harvest Quality Index combining both aforementioned factors. And to predict edamame harvest quality based on phenological stages, thermal units, and planting dates. We observed that pod color and weight depended on the cultivar, planting date, and harvest date combination. Our results also indicated that edamame quality is increased with delayed planting dates and that quality was dependent on harvest date with a quadratic negative response to delaying harvest. Maximum quality depended on cultivar and planting and harvest dates, but it remained stable for an interval of 18–27 days around the peak. Finally, we observed that the number of days between R1 and harvest was consistently identified as a key factor driving edamame quality by both stepwise regression and neural network analysis. These research results will help define a planting and harvest strategy for edamame production in Arkansas and the United States Mid-South.
Highlights
Edamame is a food-grade soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], which is harvested immature between the reproductive stages of R6 and R7, when the beans fill 80–90% of the pod (Konovsky et al, 1994; Shanmugasundaram and Yan, 2004)
For Hue and IGC, the Harvest-Date-by-Planting-Date-by-Cultivar interactions were highly significant (p < 0.0001). Those models indicated significant main effects of planting date (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0003 for Hue and IGC, respectively) and Cultivar (p = 0.0036 and p < 0.0001 for Hue and IGC, respectively) and a highly significant interaction with Planting Date-by-Cultivar (p < 0.0001 for Hue and p < 0.0001 for IGC). All these results indicated that the responses of Hundred-Pod Weight (HPW), Hue, and IGC must be explored independently by planting date, harvest date, and cultivar combination (Figure 1)
The earliest-maturity cultivar (8080) presented a significant decrease in HPW for the second and third planting dates when harvesting extended past Harvest Date 6; such drop in HPW was not observed for the later maturity cultivars (Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 1)
Summary
Edamame (vegetable soybean) is a food-grade soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], which is harvested immature between the reproductive stages of R6 and R7, when the beans fill 80–90% of the pod (Konovsky et al, 1994; Shanmugasundaram and Yan, 2004). The main physical attributes of edamame include large seed weight (>30 g per 100 seeds) and large and green crescent shaped pods with two or three seeds (Mentreddy et al, 2002; Shanmugasundaram and Yan, 2004). Production of edamame in the United States is thought to have started in the 1950s including home gardens and food processors. Nuss (2013) reported that between 22,600 and 27,000 Mg of Edamame Harvest edamame per year was consumed in the United States, estimated to be a $175–$200 million market. The United States is one of the top soybean-producing countries; soybean growers have the potential to produce edamame competitively, since commodity soybean and edamame share requirements of photoperiod sensitivity, fertilization practices, disease management, and irrigation techniques (Nuss, 2013; Ross, 2013; Ogles et al, 2016)
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