Soybean Plant Growth Promoters

Dr.Shawn Conley presented information on soybean plant growth promoters last week in Springfield.  He says that plant growth promoters include micro-organisms and bio-chemical products that promote plant growth.

The most common and maybe least expensive of these products are inoculants.  I wrote a previous blog on soybean inoculation research I had read about.  His research also confirmed that inoculating soybeans does not impact yields in most cases.   

Conley presented research on soybean seed treatments.  He found that fungicide treatments were likely to improve yields, but treatments with fungicides and insecticides were even more effective in increasing yield.

He also discussed seeding rates.  His research indicated that about 120,000 plants per acre appears to be the optimum economic rate although yields may be slightly higher at 140,000 plants per acre. 

His research showed that eliminating foliar fungicides cost about 0.6 bushels per acre yield loss.

Conley says that the biggest single impact on yield improvement was narrow rows.  His research considered narrow rows to be 20 inches or less.