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| Results I've posted on this forum before.
I spent the winter of '07-8 studying how to grow better beans in the Iowa State U library. Bought all the appropriate extension publications and the latest text book. I concluded that early planting with cruzer-maxx, expecting bean leaf beetles, with at least one spritz for them and another of headline, planting the beans that had the best yields all over this county the previous year, America's Best peat based innoculant , no till, good supply of P and K. Then I checked some old dried bean stalks, pods and beans for micrnutrients and added the illicit molybdenum to my desires. Did soil tests, studied all the published articles and books about micronutrients and major nutrients.
The beans that I ordered with C-M came bare, too fragile to stand the treatment machine and the best was only 90% germ, so I asked for a few more to plant thicker and those came 85% germ.
I did a glyphosate burn down in mid May followed by a contracted application of Prowl H2O for some herbicide persistance. The burned down weeds were still brown past mid June.
I watched soil temperature and moisture because I pretty well knew that planting a bare bean in 50 degree mud would guarantee it rotting instead of sprouting. Many times I stuck my instant read thermometer into the soil and pulled out a wad of mud. Finally by mid June the soil got up to 60, the magic number for bean germination, and was not quite so wet and I planted. 160K for the "good" beans, 179K for the poorer beans but I had to go around spots where the tractor and planter started to slide and sink. A week later I tried those spots and some were still way too wet but I planted there anyway, most of that planting drowned out.
A month later I sprayed with glyphosate when lambs quarter were about 2 inches tall and found more patches drowned out or not planted so I planted some really short season beans, mid July. Some of them drowned out. That planting was with the planter still set for 179K but I made two passes. I figured ground cover at the least, but they didn't spread out or canopy, though there were some buckshot beans in the pods at harvest.
In mid August, I found too many aphids to count so that contracted insecticide (and the headline) got applied.
The combine harvested 47 bushel beans where my goal was 70 and other parts of this county produced 70 bushel beans. Nearby neighbors that didn't spray for aphids harvested 35 bushel beans. Maybe I was late on my aphid spray. I'll never know.
Its been said on this forum many times that micronutrients are vital and you can only find out about one per year and fix that one to find the next most important shortage so it can take several years to get the micros adjusted for great yields.
I don't know any good answer to the original question. I thought I did, I tried, I failed. I rented out the land to a continuous corn grower who had also given up on beans because of poor yields. Something we haven't looked into closely (and we do grow decent corn crops most years) is excess lime in the soil from being 100 feet above a thick limestone layer. My tenant has the suspicion that the excess lime upsets all the soil tests based on normal lime and so we get led astray. When I bought the place in 1989, soil tests showed pH 6.7 to 6.8 and recommended 3/4 to 1 ton of lime. Soil tests didn't change for the first 18 years, lately they have wandered up to 7.1 to 7.3. There has been no lime applied since 1989.
Water was not a problem in 2008 except where it washed stuff away or drowned out young beans. With no till and lots of corn fodder, there was very little washing in my field. Many times less than those with full tillage experienced that year.
I've found no nematodes and except for a few feet at the road edge there has been no visiting tillage equipment since 1989 to bring nematodes to my field. There was no visible SDS or nematode damage in my field, it was all uniform, no early death spots those tend to produce.
The best beans I ever raised produced 49 bushels, which was the county and the state average that year.
I am open to criticism and suggestions, but I doubt I'll plant beans again.
Gerald J. | |
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high yielding soybeans
