Renewable Farming

Our 2016 soybean test plots show promise for Lignition and WakeUP in-furrow

The past three years, our field test strips have shown profitable yield response to in-furrow biologicals, nutrients and biostimulants — all mobilized with WakeUP.

In a world of low corn and soybean prices, the first place we’d encouraging investment in yield boosters is with the seed, in the furrow. A healthier start at germination gives the crop:

1. Faster and more uniform emergence, as the first roots find a stimulus immediately as they grow out from the seed.

2. Earlier colonization by beneficial mycorrhizae, which multiply the effective root absorption capability.

3. Stronger natural defenses against early stress of cool temperatures, excess moisture and disease.

We’re eager to harvest the results of 30 soybean test strips where we’re checking the effect of our favorite research product — Lignition, made available to us by a Canadian agriculturist who has been testing this biostimulant for about 10 years. 

Lignition was used with our in-furrow nutrient blend of micronutrients and some potassium sulfate. The variable was whether WakeUP Spring was used or not. All the beans treated with the in-furrow program looked excellent. Only the combine can tell how much WakeUP “amplified” the yield benefit.

This week we checked the pod count of one of the strips and found 2,201 developed, filling pods in a 3 ft. by 3 ft. area. We plant in 30-inch rows. This count exceeds the highest pod count which the Pro Farmer Crop Tour found earlier this week in Sangamon County, IL  (1,680) and Henry County, Iowa (2,176).  The average pod count on 40 plants in the 3×3 area was just over 55. 

Beans in these photos are eMerge 3192, planted May 22. In-furrow treatments are applied with calibrated electric pumps, behind the seed.  Six-row John Deere 7000 planter. This field has had three seasons of fall-applied gypsum (calcium sulfate from the stack scrubbers at the ADM ethanol plant in Cedar Rapids). The gypsum is applied at 2,000 lbs. per acre, along with 1,000 lbs. per acre of high-calcium lime. Calcium has always been the “king of nutrients” and the gypsum/calcium combination is extremely friendly to soil biological life. 

Here’s Renewable Farming’s Blake Carlson taking a measure of the height on these soybeans:

Blake Carlson in our Lignition trial plots
Here’s one of the soybean plants. Our Canadian source of Lignition, Dave Sutherland, saw this photo and quipped “That’s not a soybean plant... it’s a soybean tree.”
One soybean plant near end of a row
Published August 26, 2017