FarmI wrote:

Many thanks to all for the responses on how to grow soy beans.

you're welcome!


Now, to respond to 'bird:

songbird wrote:

i've grown them from picking up seeds from the
field next to us (likely a glyphosate resistant variety)

And possibly also a GMO soy bean do you think?

yes, of course sold by you know who.


and didn't like those for taste as much as the few
lbs i picked up from the health food store that were
labelled organic. i planted those this year and the
difference was noticeable in terms of season, the
ones i planted turned brown several weeks later than
the soybean fields around us.

Was that too late in the season for you or was the alteness a good thing?

the lateness was not desireable as it means
the gardens are tied up for a few weeks longer.
like i'm just out now working on most of the
large bean patch (where i grew most of the 18
kinds of beans).

it is interesting though that some patches
on the dryer soils finished earlier and those
are what i'm shelling out now. the pods that
are still greenish and drying, i'm not sure
what the quality of the beans will be so i'm
keeping those separate and for last. they
might all end up as worm food. dunno yet.
probably a week or two away from even looking
at them again.


Are you going to save some of your current harvest for replanting next year?

yes, i'll do that, as next year the fields
around us are all going to be corn so the
possibilities of contamination from the soybeans
in the distant fields will be minimal.

if i can find an earlier variety from an
organic source then i'll switch some to
test them for taste. and then if the taste
is ok, i'll switch the whole crop.

when picking i noticed around 5 different
kinds of soybeans (from the shape of the
pods, hairyness, color, etc). if the weather
gets odd it won't hurt to have some variation
in there. i'll probably keep growing at
least one patch of these just to keep the
seeds available.


i space them 4-6 inches apart and rows a foot apart.
1-2 inches deep, they have pretty big leaves and smother
anything growing within a few feet of them so don't plan
on planting anything right next to them, or you can do
what i did with some of them to thin them out (so the
strawberries got some sunshine) i just trimmed off some
of the leaves. i used the trimmings for green manure
and worm farm food. chickens would probably eat them.

:-)) Perhaps our cows would like some rather than giving them to my chooks.
My chooks get lots of (self serve) greens but will come running at the
thought of some animal protein on offer - the cows come for green tidbits if
they are in the paddock close to the veg garden :-))

i don't even know if they'd eat soybeans
or not, but the worms eat them eventually
or if they sprout and get chopped down they
work for greens.


if my estimate of the harvest this year is correct
one bean gives between a 50 to 75 return.

That's a pretty good result.

after getting so little return at the bank
it's nice to have something that does well.


harvesting by hand is a bit of work, but i like
being outside picking. stripping the stalks is not
too bad if you wait until the leaves have dried
and fallen off and the pods are mostly dry (i.e. not
green). i can pick three to four paper bags of pods
in several hours. long sleeved shirt required. it's
picky and dusty.

the shelling is also dusty, but there are methods
for doing that where you can avoid the dust too. i
put the dry pods in a pillow case and stomp on them for
a while. sort them from the chaff by dumping them from
box to box in a good breeze or if it is too windy and
rainy i use an inclined plane made out of cardboard and
they roll down it as i squish and crumple the pods to
get the beans out. i wear thin rubber gloves because
the pods will stick to cotton gloves.

i'm sure that beating the pillow case with a
baseball bat would probably work too.

the usual 90/10 rule applies, to get the first
90% of the beans takes 10% of the time and effort.
if i had chickens or pigs i'd not even bother with
the last 10% and let them pick through to get
those, but as i have both time and patience i end
up going for almost every bean i can find in the
pods. then later on, i go through and pick out
the beans i don't want to use for soymilk and put
those in the worm food bucket. the chaff gets
recycled back to the gardens one way or another
too. it makes good worm bedding eventually.

Thanks 'bird. A very good description. I've forwarded all responses to my
email addy for future reference. I might even try some this year if I can
squeeze some in somewhere - space is getting a bit on the tight side now.

questions always ok, this e-mail address is
good.


songbird