DEVELOPING OFF-SEASON PRODUCTION OF VIRGINIA GROWN EDAMAME

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: EVANS-ALLEN
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0231039
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2015
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
PETERSBURG,VA 23803

Performing Department
Agriculture

Non Technical Summary
Prosperous Virginia agribusinesses have experienced economic turmoil as a result of the 2005 mandate to end the federal tobacco price support program. Tobacco is no longer a viable alternative for many small acreage farmers. Vegetable soybean or Edamame as a cash crop is an ideal substitute because Edamame can be grown as a commodity crop similar to grain-type soybean but is marketed as a high value vegetable if harvested fresh. Because studies over the years on soybean and human health indicated that eating Edamame reduces cancer risks and lowers total and bad cholesterol, domestic demand has been increased with rising consumer awareness, which makes Edamame a potentially profitable crop. Most Edamame on the U.S. market relies on frozen product imported from China and Taiwan. However, the quality of frozen Edamame quickly drops in storage. Fresh Edameme is preferred by consumers, but fresh Edamame supply lasts only a few days every year as a result of short harvest window. Little information of extending Edamame harvest window is available for optimal conjunction of yield and profit. The objectives of this project are to build up an off-season Edamame production system in Virginia in order to extend Edamame harvest window from a few days up to half a year; and to identify optimum Edamame varieties in multiple growing seasons. The field research will be mainly conducted at Randolph farm of Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA from 2013 to 2015. Four released Edamame varieties with maturity groups (MG) from III to VI, GardenSoy 31 (MG III), GardenSoy 41 (MG IV), Moon Cake (MG V), and Randolph (MG VI), will be sowed in greenhouses and transplanted into high tunnels and the field for spring and early summer harvest, and will be successively, directly planted in the field and high tunnels for summer and fall production. Total marketable yield and seed quality traits including moisture and the content of protein, oil, and sucrose of each cultivar will be measured after each harvest to determine whether the production system is feasible and profitable. The findings of this project will help farmers to get maximum profits from extended Edamame production in Mid-Atlantic region.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
204	1419	1080	100%

Knowledge Area
204 - Plant Product Quality and Utility (Preharvest);

Subject Of Investigation
1419 - Leguminous vegetables, general/other;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics;

Keywords

vegetable soybean

edamame

off season production

season extension

Goals / Objectives
The long term objectives of this project are to build up an off-season Edamame production system in Virginia and to increase Virginia tobacco, soybean, vegetable and organic growers on-farm income through extended supply and marketing of Edamame. To achieve these long term goals, two specific objectives will be targeted. Objective 1: Extend the Edamame harvest window through season extension techniques. Greenhouse sowing, transplanting to high tunnels and covered field, multi-planting in the field and high tunnels will be utilized to test feasibility of increasing Edamame production and marketing opportunities. Objective 2: Determine the optimum combinations of favorable maturity-group varieties and planting times at each growing season. Different maturing varieties will be sowed at sequential times in greenhouses, high tunnels and the field. Yield and seed quality traits (fresh seed weight, moisture, sucrose, protein and oil content) will be evaluated to determine optimum Edamame groupings for utmost farming profit in Virginia.

Project Methods
Extend the Edamame harvest window through season extension techniques. For spring and early summer harvest, four Edamame varieties GardenSoy 31 (MG III), GardenSoy 41 (MG IV), Moon Cake (MG V) and Randolph (MG VI) developed by soybean breeding program of USDA at University of Illinois and Maryland as well as Virginia State University will be sowed in greenhouses at Randolph Farm at VSU in early, mid, and late February and March. After 21 to 25 days of sowing, plants sowed on February will be transplanted to black plastic covered raised bed in the high tunnels in early, mid, and late March, and plants sowed in March will be planted in black plastic film covered raised beds in field in early, mid, and late April. Transplants will be immediately covered by supported Agribon row covers to increase temperature and reduce weed. The row covers will be removed in May to protect plants from spring frost. Pods will be harvested when seeds fill 80 - 90% of the pod cavity, and the harvest is expected to start from mid June to the end of August. To continue summer production, the same four varieties will be sowed on six planting dates: early, mid, and late May and June in the field at Petersburg, Blacksburg and Painter, VA. The harvest period is expected to last from mid August to mid October. To extend fall harvest period, the four varieties will be planted in August and early September under high tunnels. All plots will be covered with high tunnels protection in late September when the low temperature reach below 5 degree C. Harvest under high tunnels will be expected to begin in mid November and last from half to one month. Determine the optimum combinations of favorable maturity-group varieties and planting times at each growing season. Each variety will be planted in a four-row plot, 4.9 m in length with a 0.76 m row spacing, with randomized complete block design in three replications at Petersburg, VA for early summer and Petersburg, Blacksburg and Painter, VA for extended summer and fall production. For spring and late fall production under high tunnels, a four-row plot, 1.5 m in length with 0.5 m row spacing will be used due to limited spaces. One and half meter row of each row in the field and all rows of each cultivar under high tunnels will be harvested when the pods reach R6-R7 stage at each location. Yield (total yield and total marketable yield) and seed quality traits (fresh seed weight, moisture, sucrose, protein, and oil content) will be measured with proper equipment for each cultivar. Optimum combinations of favorable MGs and planting times at each growing season will be recommended based on the unique profile of each cultivar on yield and seed quality traits across locations and years.

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Consumers, local fresh edamame suppliers and farmers Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through this project, student workers and/or hourly employees have had the opportunity to learn about agronomic projects, particularly plot layout and data collection. Students and other employees were able to identify R6-R7 soybean growth stage, an ideal time for harvesting vegetable soybean, and evaluate the characters of importance for edamame and mature seeds. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Nothing in writing has been done yet. However, field plots have been used to showcase potential for Edamame production to visiting tour groups and to attendees to the VSU Agricultural Field Days. The data will be presented later at professional meetings and/or published in peer-reviewed journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Project Completed

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Approximately 300 advanced breeding lines were planted in the spring/summer 2014 for evaluation, and more than 100 lines were selected and planted again in 2015 for further evaluation and selection in the subsequent season. Several promising lines were planted for seed increasing. Evaluation included fresh biomass, pod yield, seed weight of edamame were determined at stage R6-R7 just following the end of this project, and dry-grain yield, 100-seed weight after combining/harvesting. Many superior lines with higher yield were identified. Quality traits (protein and oil contents) and resistance to seed diseases are and/or will be also determined beyond the period of this project. In addition, over 2,000 individual plants were also selected and the corresponding plant rows were planted for further selection. About 350-400 plant rows were preliminarily selected in the field. Further selection will be performed later according to the seed traits.

Publications

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Producers and food industry Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Through this project, student workers and hourly employees have had the opportunity to learn about agronomic projects, particularly plot layout and data collection. Students and other employees were able to identify R6-R7 soybean growth stage, an ideal time for harvesting vegetable soybean. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Field plots have been used to showcase potential for Edamame production to visiting tour groups and to attendees to the VSU Agricultural Field Days. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Carry out the last year of production for this project. At end of the season after all data has been collected for this production year, analysis of data will be performed and write-up and publication of results in a reputable journal will follow. All publication of summary results may be put on extension bulletins. Field observation/evaluation and selection will be performed to identify appropriate breeding lines. The selected materials will be planted for further evaluation, selection and purification.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Plants in high tunnel on plastic-culture in early- and mid-spring showed good growth. It was shown that plastic-culture allowed fast growth of field-grown crops compared to those without plastic. Using the new production system (high tunnel, plastic covered seed-beds in the field, and conventional soybean production) in combination with edamame cultivars of different maturity groups, the harvest window was extended from the a few days for conventionally produced crop to several months. GardenSoy31 (MG III) and GardenSoy41 (MG IV) were harvested earlier than Mooncake (MG V) and Randolph (MG VI) when planted at the same time. There was an observable difference in yield between cultivars within a production system, which could be attributed to differences in cultivar yield potentials. Under all the systems, marketable pods (≥ 2 seeds pod-1) were between 40-75 % of the total yield. Beans harvested at different time periods during the year showed comparable levels of sucrose, protein and oil. The results indicated that even when produced off season, Edamame quality is maintained. Approximately 300 advanced breeding lines were planted in the spring/summer 2014 for evaluation and selection to be performed in the subsequent season and/or reporting period. Several promising lines were planted for seed increasing.

Publications

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Four released Edamame varieties with different maturity groups will be sowed in greenhouses and transplanted into high tunnels and the field for spring and early summer harvest, and will be successively, directly planted in the field and high tunnels for summer and fall production. Total marketable yield and seed quality traits including protein, oil and sucrose content of each cultivar will be measured after each harvest. The findings of this project will help farmers to get maximum profits from extended Edamame production in Mid-Atlantic region.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? To meet the objectives of this project, experiment was carried out beginning in early April. Because preliminary study had shown that Randolph could not be established in early April, only three Edamame cultivars; Moon cake, Gardensoy 31 and Gardensoy 41 were grown in a high tunnel under plasti-culture during the first planting. Spring and fall planting was done in high tunnels with plastics. In late spring and summer field planting was in presences or absence of plastic cover. Harvesting of pods which began July 4 for spring planted soybean is continuing for those planted later. Harvesting will continue through October. During harvest, weight of all pods harvested and marketable pods are obtained. Also about 100 gram of shelled seeds are obtained and frozen with liquid nitrogen. The frozen seeds are stored at -80 ° F until freeze drying. Tried material was ground and analyzed to determine oil, protein, and sucrose content. Plants establishment success differed with cultivar especially during the first planting in April. During the second planting all four cultivars showed good establishment in the high tunnel, however, there was poor establishment for plant in the field without planti-culture. During the first year of production, we obtained total and marketable pod yield of different Edamame varieties established both in the hoop-house and in the field. Preliminary results indicate that it is possible to extent harvest window for fresh Edamame from the normally 2 weeks to more than two months. We also observed potential yield differences among Edamame varieties for different harvest time periods. Also we have ground samples of freeze dried seed ready for oil, sugar, and protein analyzes. The results of the analyses will be ready by end of April 2014.

Publications