A lot can be gained by checking to see if you are hitting your plant stand targets. In the balance of costs of production for pulse and soybean crops, seed is an expensive line item. A lot of consideration should go into targeting plant populations that will set you up best for reaching maximum yield potential. Assessing plants stands in June is a fast and easy exercise that will quickly let you know if you are hitting you plant stand targets. And if you are not, plant stand assessments can give you important information to help you figure out why not. Over years, the knowledge gained from annual plant stand assessments will improve your ability to set your equipment for the desired depth and placement, to adjust to changing spring soil moisture conditions, to account for specific seed lot quality concerns and to minimize seed damage from handling.
Plants stand densities greater than recommended optimum levels usually mean unnecessary money was spent on seed and these higher populations pose a greater risk of disease pressure later in the season. There can be too much of a good thing. Lower than optimum plant stand densities usually mean that a very good job will have to be done with weed control since pulse and soybean crops are not effective early season competitors with weeds. If soybean populations are so low that you’re considering replanting or topping up soybean stands, review information on soybean replanting decisions →
MPSG has a an app for that – Use the Bean App to calculate plant stand densities!!
- Apple App Store: Download the MPSG Bean App →
- (currently not available on Google Play at the moment)
Tips for conducting plant stand assessments →
- Plant counts should be done when all plants have emerged.
- Use the fixed area method to calculate plant populations if using a hoop or a square. Use the row length method if using a measuring tape or stick.
- Enter your hoop diameter, area of square or length of row measured and the number of plants in that area.
- Assess multiple spots throughout the field and let the tool calculate plants/acre for you.
- Check poor areas as well as good areas and investigate reasons for poor emergence or gaps in the seed row.
- The plant stand assessor is specific to soybeans, but the calculator itself can be useful for all other crops.
- Compare your achieved plant stands with the table above for other pulse crops.