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| I am not going to take a defensive posture on the issue of soybean plant populations. If you want to plant 200K then go for it; and you will need a craper head to harvest them most years. I have tried various plant pops for the last 40 years; and there is no "correct" pop; however if you look at the published research you will see that yields in general do not decline until pop drops below 50K in good cultural situations. Of course, noone can plant to that level; but 100K is enough in most situations. Spend time looking at the published research; and you will find the same story. The high pops that perform well are rare; and require intensive IPM measures that are very expensive. We commonly harvest 50 to 70 bpa with one fungicide/insecticide app at R2 to R4 in populations of 90 to 100K (even in dryland culture). In the 70's and 80's we were happy to get 25 to 30 bpa; so this is working for us. It may not be as appropriate north of the M/D Line; but I expect it will be. | |
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Soybean Population ?
