Introduction and Recap
When to start to plant can often be a difficult decision. The challenges include weather-related changes, soil temperature, moisture conditions, number of acres to cover and the risk of a spring frost for the earliest planted fields. We have recommended starting soybean planting as early as mid- to late April based on scientific reports that document higher yields (Tenorio et al., 2016). Advancing the soybean planting date window to match the corn planting date window would require using two planters, but some growers opt to plant soybeans before corn. In a recent post, Conley recommended planting soybean 7-10 days prior to planting corn (assuming the ground is fit to plant and the crop insurance date is taken into account).
Soybean growers frequently ask these questions:
“If the soil temperature is less than 50°F (in the 40’s), yet on a warming trend, can I safely plant my beans without risk of chilling injury?”
“How many hours after planting have to occur before an anticipated cold snap to avoid chilling injury to beans?”
To better address these questions, we decided in March to initiate indoor and outdoor studies to demonstrate the elements of the timing and duration of the critical imbibition water uptake phase for soybean. This article shares what we found in our indoor demonstration.