Comparative assessment of some physical indicators of grain and vegetable soybeans

Recently, an interest in edamame (vegetable soybeans) in Russia increased, but today there are no officially registered soybean varieties in the country that are specifically intended for use as a vegetable crop. Russian scientists are studying a possibility of growing it in various regions of the country. The purpose of this study is to study the dynamic changes in the physical properties of green beans and soybean seeds in a comparative varietal aspect. Green beans and soybean seeds of the Dauria and Evgenia grain varieties selected by the Federal Research Center of the All-Russian Research Institute of Soybeans and the Mikawashima vegetable soybean variety of Japanese breeding (accepted standard) were used as research objects. In the course of the study, the physical properties of green beans and soybean seeds were studied — the mass of 1000 seeds, the size of the beans and seeds, as well as the strength of the seeds. It has been established that grain varieties are inferior to vegetable varieties in terms of the size of beans and seeds. Significant differences were recorded in terms of the mass of 1000 seeds at actual humidity from 50.10 ± 0.18 to 76.66 ± 0.11%: the Dauria variety has 44.8–53.4%, the Evgenia variety has 17.8–50.0%. According to the coefficient of seed size, the differences were 47.7–57.5% and 44.2–52.7%, respectively. The strength indicators of the seeds of the studied soybean varieties Dauria and Evgenia significantly exceeded the standard values — by 54.7–69.2% and 26.6–46.7%, respectively.