uhoh

   i suspect i shall have a surplus of
soybeans.

  yesterday was the first chance i'd had
to start shelling the harvest.

  the first paper bag full came in over
5lbs (i think my whole harvest last year
was about 4.5lbs).

  i have another 8 - 15 bags yet to go
(don't know for sure because some are
still in trays drying).

  in the meantime, i'm looking out the
window at the first sleet/snow of the season
and very glad i finished leveling two gardens
last week and got the bulbs all replanted.

  the second strawberry patch is mulched
and the third strawberry patch is started
with the potted transplants i had standing
by (waiting for the beans to be finished
and harvested).  surrounded by garlic as
there is no fence around that area and we
have bunnies and deer that sometimes come
through.  however, this year we've had a
hawk hunting and i suspect it has given
the bunnies a challenge.

  a dozen bags of shredded leaves to bury
and mix in many gardens with the shredded bark
to keep the worms happy for the winter.  not
going to put any of this on the clay out
back as that already has had a good cover.

  one last garden to chop and bury (the
peas i planted in August) sometime this
weekend when the weather is supposed to
clear for a bit.

  so back to the soybeans today.  :)  it's
music to my ears hearing them bouncing off
and rolling down the cardboard.


  songbird

 
Nice post Bird - sounds like life is good for you.  Now, 'bout those
soybeans....   How does one go about growing soybeans please?  How deep, how
far apart, what sort of soil conditions, when etc?  and can you gorw soy
beans from the stock you'd buy at a Health food shop or does one have to buy
special seed soy beans.  TIA.

 

I have had luck sprouting the soy beans from out local weigh and pay so I
see no reason why they wouldn't grow, if the wife didn't eat them.  As to
how deep and how far that's beyond me.

Mike

 wrote:


The directions on my purchased green soybean seeds say:
    "Any good garden soil will grow soybeans.  After last frost in
spring, sow about 6 -10 seeds/ft., 1" deep, rows 15 - 30" apart
depending on method of cultivation.  Reduce seeding rate somewhat for
more narrow row spacing.  Thinning is not necessary."

Sounds pretty much like most beans I have grown.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

 The Cook wrote:
...

  4 inches minimum between plants.  rows a foot
apart is fine.  after they get going you will not
be able to walk between the rows anyways, but the
plants support each other so having them too far
apart means they might get blown over.

  if you want a pathway you'll need 5ft at
least.  plants i grew this year went over a
three foot spacing (strawberries and row of
wax and green beans next to the strawberries,
soybeans in the middle) and still flopped out
over into the surrounding pathway.  i've already
decided next year to plant the soybeans in two
bigger patches (instead of the seven small
patches i did this year) because they overgrew
so much of the plants around them.  they can
lean on each other.  i'll probably double my
productivity of the other bean patches this way.


  songbird