EFFECT OF FLOWERING HABIT ON POD DEVELOPM ENT IN VEGETABLE SOYBEAN

The aim of this experiment was to analyze the relationship of pods dev elopment with the flowering habit in vegetable soybean. the cultivars Kaohsiung Selection No. 1 and Ryokukou were used to investigate their characters in flowering, podding and development of seeds from R1 to R 6 stage. The results showed flower beginning date and full blooming we re significant differences between crops and among cultivars. The fall crops had more flowers than the spring crops. In general, the more fl owers the plants produced the higher the podding between the main stem and branches, it was found more pods were produced on the stem than o n the branches in both cultivars. Along the canopy the lower layer pro duced more pods and had a higher seed dry weight per plants. However, the podding percentage in the upper layer and middle layer were more t han lower layer and had a higher dry weight per pod or per seed. Appar ently the pod growth rate was highest in the upper canopy, presumably due to a higher availability of photoassimilate. Cytological studies o n the different seed weight showed that cotyledon cell of the large se ed had sufficient assimilate to fill as well as cell volume was greate r than that of the small seed.