Identifying Edamame (vegetable soybean) Suitable for Cultivation for the Fresh Food Market of Florida.

Edamame (Glycine max L.) is a long-established vegetable crop in many countries of Asia, but demand is exploding in the US as a healthy vegetable snack or as a salad component. Edamame has been gaining popularity in the United States, likely due to the nutritional quality, purported human health benefits, and flavor. Edamame is a potential source for locally grown food to meet demand for fresh food by Florida consumers. However, little information is available about edamame production in Florida. The objective of the present study is to investigate the feasibility of edamame production for growers and the local fresh food industry of Florida. We initially characterized 108 edamame genotypes (maturity zones ranging from 3 to 8) for different morphological and yield-related traits. Nineteen genotypes were selected and planted at two locations (WFREC, Jayand PSREU, Citra) in Florida for evaluation. Genotypes showed significant variation for different traits, such as seedling vigor, emergence rate, days to R1 and R6 stages, number of nodes/plant, number of pods/plant, seeds/pod, fresh pod weight/plant at R6 stage, fresh seed weight/plant at R6 stage, number of seeds for pods, and greenness index. The quality analysis of seeds at the R6 stage is in progress. This research will identify edamame genotypes with potential adaptation for Florida environments and will establish basic knowledge on the production of edamame for Florida growers.