The lab was busy this spring, so I can write a newsletter. The products we sell are very hard to obtain. We have had to wait for everything we have bought this year. Thank you for being patient with us; we are very appreciative of that. It seems like the newsletter should be the first thing you should think of, but it is usually the last. I promise I will have a garden newsletter for the next one.
Now we will get to soybeans; you should always use a little ammonium sulfate spread over the field and work it into the soil before you plant soybeans. 100 lbs./acre is enough to keep soybeans growing. When the soybeans are small, it takes a certain amount of nitrogen to keep the plant growing before soybeans can fix their own nitrogen. Be sure you have enough phosphate available. Remember, all nutrients, except nitrogen, go into a plant phosphate form.
There is another reason also; the soybean is made up of 20 essential amino acids and two of those amino acids contain sulfur. The sulfate in ammonium sulfate is in the usable form. Be sure you use sulfate and not use sulfur because sulfur is not available for 90 days after it is put on. You must convert sulfur to sulfate before it can be available to the soil.
One other thing to consider when you are raising soybeans is to use a blooming spray with which to foliar the beans. There are a few key concepts to understand regarding the use of a blooming spray. Always use phosphate in your foliar spray. Soybeans use the phloem to get nutrients into the plant. They can’t get nutrients if there isn’t an attraction. Phosphate is a triple negative. Inside the plant is a positively charged hydrogen ion. You have to have that attraction between the hydrogen ion and the phosphate ion to make things happen. If it’s raining in your area and you have a good crop, you may consider using a foliar spray to hold the pods on and make the beans flower. Soybeans are what I call, a two stage plant. You don’t want to bulk the soybeans; you want to grow them and flower them. If you bulk them, you can expect to have a thirty-bushel reduction. This blooming spray concept happens to work on garden snap beans also.
I hope you found this helpful, and just so you know, we have a supply of Bloomit on hand.
God bless,
Wendell Owens
