Soybeans in the photo below are pushing their second trifoliate leaves just over three weeks from a May 1 planting date. Temperatures in this north central Iowa county were slightly warmer than normal in May, but rainfall was below normal. The farmer attributes vigorous growth to a variety known for good emergence, plus an in-furrow treatment of multiple live microbial species, WakeUP Spring, and Agri-SC soil conditioner.
May 27, 2021 As of May 26, these beans already had profuse roots — and an average of eight nodules per plant. The field had been in continuous corn for eight years. This is the first season our farmer client planted a crop on it.
Seeing these beans off to a vigorous start, the grower foliar-fed these beans yesterday with Fulltec Plus, a Spraytec product providing nitrogen, phosphorus and four trace minerals. He amplified the coverage, penetration and translocation of that spray with WakeUP. The nearby photo of these beans was taken less than 5 minutes after the sprayer wet the leaves — and the spray material has already been absorbed rain-fast.
Our observation: This is an example of accelerating early root proliferation with an array of beneficial fungi and bacteria, including nitrogen fixers, and then insuring adequate micronutrient availability during critical early growth. The grower has the advantage of owning a large towed field sprayer, plus having a family member who does custom spraying with a large high-clearance sprayer. Thus he can control spray timing and use a wide selection of spray materials — not just those sold by the co-op. (Some ag cooperatives and independent ag suppliers will spray only the products they sell.)