How close did you get to achieving the soybean plant density you were aiming for? What’s the yield potential of the stand you have?
The only way to get a bead on those answers is to get out and scout the soybean stand early in the season — at about the first trifoliate stage. How long will the crop take to get there? That depends on not just what date the crop was seeded on, but also what the soil temperature was on the day the crop went in.
In this Soybean School West episode, Manitoba Pulse Growers’ production specialist Kristen Podolsky outlines how much longer soybeans take to emerge when planted in 6, 8 and 10 degree C soil (hint: it was as long as 14 days between the coolest and warmest temp!), runs through the three tools and one app you’ll need for doing your plant stand counts and offers up a few tips for evaluating how well you did this year on stand establishment.