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| I have always thought I have planted soybeans with too high of populations. I usually shoot for 140,000 with a final stand of 100,000. This year we had good weather conditions at planting and during germination. I have close to 125 to 130k in most of my fields. I have one field that usually gets hammered by deer so I planted them at 160k figuring the deer would thin them out some.
Observations: most all my plants are very tall. When you pull the canopy back you can see some plants with stems that are smaller in diameter. Those I think germinated at a later date. The plants only have 1 or 2 vines on them but are well podded. Any where there is tracks from the sprayer that left an opening in the canopy those plants are 3 times the size in diameter. They have 5 or 6 vines on them and have 150 to 200 pods compared to 60 to 80 on the others that don't have as much space. The field at 160k are very tall thin plants without any vines and only have about 30 pods. I think they don't have the space and the ground doesn't have the fertility to support that high of a population. I guess the deer didn't eat enough to thin them back like I had figured.
The combine will answer the question of what is better, 80k plants that have 250 pods or 130k plants with 80 pods. I like the look of the bigger Bushey type plants, but the elevator doesn't buy them based on the plants look, they buy them buy the bushel /pound.
I have wondered if the bean in a plant with 80 pods will be larger and therefore weigh more than a bean from a plant with 250 pods since the plant with fewer pods can put all of its energy into making those beans larger and therefore heavier and thus needing fewer beans to make a bushel.
I have always planted in 15 inch rows. I think next year I am going to plant some 30s and experiment with the population to see what happens. Biggest challenge with 30s for me will be weed control. Soybeans are a interesting plant that every year I seem to learn or discover something new when growing them. | |
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Monster soybean plant.
