Can soy beans grow in Ireland?

DSLC

...without a greenhouse that is?

From the rather hasty google search I've just done, I get the impression that they can be, but then again .... the soy bean is indigenous to ....Asia (?)...isn't it?

Any help?

beer enigma

I hope that you’re brave !!!

Firstly, the answer is yes, it is possible.

It’s not so much the fact that we have ‘slightly’ worse weather than Asia, more the fact that our growing season is much shorter. However, if you start them off indoors during early April, and plant them out after any danger of late frosts, you should get a crop around the end of August.

Go back to your school days & start them off like bean sprouts - on wet blotting paper ideally. When the root is about an inch long, put the beans into some bulk standard potting compost – don’t break the root though (they snap VERY easily) & put them in a sunny place, and water daily without water logging them or they'll rot.
You should get a shoot after a few days – any longer without signs of life & the chances are they’ve rotted. Keep growing them on & in no time at all, you’ll have a plant of about 12 inches & ready to plant out into the garden.

When they’re planted out – PRAY for a good summer & water daily. Let Mother Nature & the bees do the rest, and around the end of August the plants should be full of pods, each containing half a dozen or more beans.

You don’t need to soak them, unlike the dried soy bean & they need only be lightly boiled for 10-15 minutes max
Good Luck

Andi

DSLC

Thanks very much Andip; good info. I'll try the local gardening center for the seeds.