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Showing posts from February, 2023

Horticulture & Turf Fungicide Effects on Mycorrhizal Fungi

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General Observations: *The longer the wait to apply any fungicide after mycorrhizal fungi inoculation, the better for the mycorrhizal fungi development. **Most foliar sprays of any fungicide (except systemics such as Bayleton) have little effect on mycorrhizal fungi. This chart is updated periodically, as new products are added, and results of new trials are published. Please visit  www.mycorrhizae.com or contact your Mycorrhizal Applications Representative for the latest version of this chart.

Does Inoculation Pay?

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Most farmers have stopped inoculating soybeans but with todays prices, is it worth considering? In most cases, if soybeans have been grown in the last 3-5 years, the soil contains rhizobia (Bradyrhizobium japonicum) bacteria which fix atmospheric nitrogen in their root nodules to produce soybean seed. Although these soils have rhizobia, do you have enough and does it pay to inoculate every year. Dr. Jim Beuerline’s Ohio research (2004) showed farmers gain 1.94 soybean bushels per acre when they inoculated their crops every year. Since inoculant costs $5 to $7 per acre, at $14 per soybean bushel, that’s a return of 4X-6X your investments. For some farms the yield increase is 2-6 bushel ($28-$84)/acre or a return of 4X-16X. In most cases, inoculating soybeans is an investment that is at least worth considering! Here are some cases where it really pays. First, if your soil has been flooded or have standing water for more than 1 week, inoculation can pay off. On the other hand, if you inoc

Cover Crops: Good & Bad

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Farmers seem to either lover or hate cover crops. Cover crops have many benefits, but they may be hard to see immediately. First the bad or difficult things about cover crops will be discussed followed by the benefits. Cover crops cost money for seed, planting, and sometimes termination. It takes more knowledge and experience to plant cover crops and to use it with no-till (school of hard knocks), so its risky at first. The timeliness factor, getting cover crops planted on time and established is difficult. Herbicide carryover can be an issue and sometimes it requires different equipment (no-till, sprayers, spreaders) although less or no tillage equipment if used in a no-till system. Then there are the pests (slugs, voles, cutworms) that love a good feast. Cover crop residue may have an allelopathic or negative growing effect on the grain crop. It can be difficult to plant timely if soils stay cold and wet (sounds like a compaction problem) and sometimes planting is delayed and soil ge

Increasing Soybean Yields

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There are an estimated 275,000 different plant species on earth. Each contain thousands of unique chemical compounds, however, each individual plant with its own unique genetic can also produce their own unique variations to these compounds. A plant with one thousand plant chemicals can literally combine them a million different ways. When you add diversity to a plant and soil microbial community, you can get significant changes to both the soil and the plant response with only minute changes. The changes can be dramatic. Many companies are now experimenting with using biologicals (microbes, plant extracts, etc) to stimulate plant growth and yield. At the National No-till on the Plains conference, Wichita Kansas, a researcher (Chris Teachout) described a process he was investigating to promote higher soybean yields. Chris was using a liquid compost worm extract that he applied directly to the soybean seed. This extract is extremely high in beneficial bacteria and some plant nutrients.