Soybeans: growing features, harvesting, proper planting and care. Proper planting and care of soybeans Conditions for growing soybeans

Soybean is a plant known to everyone; it is one of the oldest on earth and many gardeners are engaged in its cultivation. Growing 1-2 dozen soybean bushes will be enough for a family.

For soybeans to grow, certain conditions are necessary - a sunny, fertile area with a good drainage layer. Soybean does not like stagnation of water and cold. Soil acidity should be in the range of pH 6.5-7.0, with acidity pH< 5,5 обязательно провести известкование почвы. Кислый грунт и слишком щелочной грунт замедляет развитие корневой системы. На заболоченных и солончаковых почвах растения погибают.

In the spring, when the sun begins to actively warm the ground, prepare a bed for sowing - break up the clods, loosen and level the soil. It is inconvenient to collect low-growing soybean fruits; a leveled bed will simplify the work.

In stable warm weather (late April-mid-May, if the soil has warmed up to 10-15°C), soybean seeds are placed in grooves spilled with water 5-6 cm deep, at a distance of 5-7 cm from each other. The distance between the grooves is 40- 45 cm. Crops are moistened and mulched with peat. Mulching will help retain the necessary moisture and air exchange in the soil. If you ignore mulching, you will have to regularly loosen it, since clogging the soil negatively affects the plant. The first time they begin to loosen when sprouts appear, this will remove weeds. Water regularly, especially during the flowering period. Drought has a negative effect on the formation of flowers, and after flowering the ovaries may fall off. A sharp cold snap causes a slowdown in growth and a delay in flowering, but not the death of plants.

When the soybean bushes throw up flowers, nitrophoska is added to the soil; thanks to this fertilizing, the quality of the crop improves. Complex mineral fertilizer can be combined with manure.

Soybean is not particularly resistant to diseases and pests. There are many enemies, and you need to be prepared to fight them. If any signs of disease appear, the affected plants are removed and burned. For prophylaxis, at the stage of appearance of 5-7 leaves, soybeans are treated with a drug that includes Bentazone, Imazethapyr or Imazamox.

Soybeans are harvested when the beans turn a slightly gray color and the leaves begin to fall off. It is important not to miss the moment of collecting the beans, otherwise they will crack and fall to the ground. Fallen leaves are buried in the soil. The stems are mowed, the bean pods are dried, threshed, winnowed and stored in fabric bags or paper bags. Soybeans should not be stored in containers and containers where condensation accumulates.

Growing soybeans on a personal plot allows you not only to enjoy the taste of its fruits, but also to create favorable conditions for the soil. The soil is not eroded and is enriched with organic nitrogen from roots and stems. Soybeans are grown in one place for 2-3 years, after which it is better to change the area. The best predecessors of soybeans are sugar beets, grains and winter crops. Avoid beds with cabbage, legumes, lentils, lupine and
, since some types of diseases can safely migrate to soybeans.

Soy is an interesting product; it is used in the preparation of soy milk, meat, soy sauce, low-quality coffee, flour, oil and other culinary products. It is used as a substitute for a natural product, as it has a large amount of minerals and protein. Soybeans are often presented as a GMO product, but if you plant and grow it on your own plot, this idea can be refuted.

Sowing soybeans
Among the extensive complex of technological operations for growing soybeans, soybean sowing occupies a place, because the timeliness and quality of its implementation determine the yield of the crop and the amount of subsequent labor time and money spent on its cultivation.

The main tasks facing soybean sowing are to ensure optimal plant density, adherence to the required depth of seed sowing, its uniform distribution over the field area, that is, the creation of conditions when four equivalent and mutually irreplaceable factors of their life activity are evenly distributed among plant organisms - light, heat, moisture and batteries. Any agricultural practice is connected and conditioned by at least two factors:
1). biological requirements of culture;
2). agroclimatic resources of the growing zone.

This circumstance fully applies to all activities of the sowing complex - timing and methods of sowing, seeding rates and depth of seed placement.

Soybean sowing time. It is clear that choosing the optimal sowing time is first of all meeting the biological requirements of the plants. For soybeans, we consider three temperature levels necessary for initial development: minimum (when you can notice any qualitative changes in the seeds preceding its germination), optimal (the level at which the processes of swelling, germination and seedlings occur more intensely) and maximum (when high temperature becomes an obstacle to the germination process). The soybean sowing period must be determined by such an indicator as an economically feasible temperature level, which occupies an intermediate position between the mineral and biological optimum. In practice, depending on specific production conditions, as well as the early maturity of varieties or hybrids and the direction of use of the resulting products, a complete modification of the sowing time occurs.

It should be determined based on the following provisions:
- The earlier the soybeans are sown, the higher the level of infestation;
- The later the sowing is carried out, the later the crop will reach full maturity, which may limit the sowing period;
- Later sowing dates determine the generative development of plants in conditions of long daylight hours and have an inadequate effect on the duration of the growing season of short-day plants;
- At the later stages of sowing, the high layer of soil in most cases dries out and complicates the process of obtaining seedlings.

Thus, the strategic direction in choosing the sowing time is to take into account all the agrobiological properties of varieties or hybrids, specific soil and climatic conditions and the possible consequences of changing the recommended sowing time.

The timing of soybean sowing is crucial, since the growing season, the timing of its ripening, the formation of a high yield and the quality of the product depend on them. As a result of many years of research, the optimal timing for soybean sowing in the western regions has been established: in the center and south of the subzone, the third ten days of April, in the north - the first ten days of May.

Method of sowing soybeans. The method of sowing is, like the timing, an event chosen in accordance with the characteristics of the plants, but here morphological rather than biological characteristics come to the fore.

In modern agricultural soybean production, various sowing methods are used: accelerated (7.5 cm), regular row (15, 22.5 and 30 cm), wide-row (from 45 to 210 cm) and many modifications of strip and tape.

In recent years, new low-growing, early-ripening soybean varieties have been developed that are suitable for the conventional row sowing method. A soil-protective conventional row sowing method with a row spacing of 15 has been introduced; 22.5 and 30 cm.

For soybeans, the technology of row sowing, similar to that for cereal grains, is not new. For growing soybeans for seeds, monofodder, silage or green manure in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, where soybeans are grown in crop rotation with grains, they are sown only with grain seeders with row spacing of 15-30 cm.

Our research has proven that the best way to sow soybeans in Western regions is the usual row row with a row spacing of 15; 22.5 and 30 cm. Soybeans can be sown with various seeders: grain-grass (SZT-3, 6), grain (SZU-3, 6; SZ-3, 6; SZA-3, 6; SN-1, 6).

Soybeans with this method of sowing do not branch; they grow and ripen faster and higher, which is important for the northern subzone of the western regions. The fastening of the lower beans with the usual row sowing method is at the level of 12-14 cm, which is optimal for harvesting with a combine.

Seeding rate. Determining the optimal seeding rate is one of the most important elements of technology in general and the sowing complex in particular. The statement that the optimal seeding rate for soybeans is kg/ha is incorrect. To avoid this error, the seeding weight rate should be calculated based on a quantitative indicator, taking into account specific indicators of the sowing qualities of the seeds.

For soybeans, the weight seeding rate should be calculated quantitatively, but the latter must be determined by the final plant density before harvesting.

The general theory for optimizing plant density is to model the elements of productivity to achieve the desired level of yield. The latter is defined as the average possible for specific production conditions and agroclimatic potential of the region.

The final element of such modeling is to determine the individual productivity of one plant. Having this indicator, we can easily calculate the required plant density before harvesting. Based on our long-term research, production testing and the practice of co-cropping farms with a high agricultural crop, with sufficient development of the technology of its cultivation, when the crops were maintained in a weed-free state, it is recommended to achieve the following density on high agricultural backgrounds during the germination period:
- For early ripening varieties - 900 thousand pieces/ha;
- For early ripening varieties - 800 thousand pieces/ha;
- For mid-season - 700 thousand pieces/ha.

The depth of soybean seed placement depends on the moisture and structure of the surface layer of soil, the timing and methods of sowing, the size and energy of seed germination and the degree of early maturity of the variety. The optimal depth for planting soybean seeds is 2-4 cm when the soil layer is warmed up and well-moistened (1.5-2.5 cm). Seeds are wrapped to a shallower depth during early sowing, when the soil is still cold, but there is a tendency for it to warm up and it contains sufficient amount of moisture. Only in some cases can soybeans be sown deeper - when the top layer of soil is dry and there is not enough moisture in it for the seeds to swell and germinate. It often happens that failure to plant seeds to the optimal depth is associated with the nature and quality of processing. Deep cultivation before sowing automatically increases the seeding depth, and dense soil before sowing is a factor that makes increasing the depth impossible. It is especially necessary to pay attention to the formation of sowing units using the usual row method. The possibility of more complete planting of seeds to a given depth will largely depend on this. The depth of seed placement depends on the type of soil, the quality of its preparation, the presence of moisture and plant residues, etc. On light soils, seeds are planted to a depth of 3-4 cm; on heavy soils - 1.5-2.0 cm. With a sufficient amount of moisture in the soil and for the optimal sowing period, the optimal depth of seed planting is 2.0 cm.

Late-ripening varieties are best sown at the lowest possible seeding depth.

Biological characteristics of soybeans

Heat requirements.

Soybean is a heat-loving plant. The optimal temperature for emergence is 12-14 °C, for growth 21-23 °C, ripening 24-26 °C.

The sum of active temperatures required for the ripening of early-ripening varieties is at least 1700 °C, mid-ripening 3000 °C, late-ripening about 3500 °C.

Soybean seedlings tolerate short-term frosts well (down to -4? C).

Moisture requirements.

Soybean is a relatively drought-resistant crop. The critical period in water consumption is during flowering, formation and growth of beans. During these developmental phases, air drought is especially dangerous, which can cause partial or complete collapse of the generative organs. For this reason, soybean cultivation in hot and dry climates requires irrigation.

If there is an excess of water in the soil, the breathing of roots and nodules becomes difficult, their death is observed, as a result, the supply of nutrients to the plants is disrupted and productivity decreases.

The optimal soil moisture for soybeans is a moisture content corresponding to 65-80% of the MPV.

Light requirements.

Soybean is a short-day crop; the length of its growing season increases as one moves north, however, there are currently varieties and forms adapted to long days.

Soil requirements.

Soybean grows best on soils with a soil solution reaction close to neutral (pH 6.5-7.5) with a deep, loose arable horizon. On acidic, over-compacted soils, nitrogen fixation activity drops sharply, the process of mineral nutrition of plants is disrupted, and productivity decreases.

Soybean growing technology

1.Predecessors.

It is better to place soybeans in weed-free fields with optimal supplies of nutrients and moisture. Suitable precursors for soybeans include grains, corn, sugar beets, potatoes, and perennial cereal grasses. Unsuitable are other leguminous crops and perennial legumes, sunflowers or cabbage crops. The portion of crops susceptible to sclerotinia (sunflower, rapeseed) in the crop rotation should not exceed 33%.

In turn, soybean is an excellent precursor for winter wheat and other grain crops, corn, rapeseed, fodder and vegetable crops.

2. Soil preparation.

The main cultivation of the soil consists of carrying out one or two autumn peelings to a depth of 8–10 cm, applying fertilizers for plowing, to a depth of 22–25 cm after grain predecessors and to a depth of 25–30 cm after corn. Early spring cultivation begins with harrowing with heavy, medium or light harrows when the soil reaches physiological ripeness. They harrow across or at an angle to the direction of plowing. Pre-sowing treatment should be minimal and at the same time ensure the destruction of weed seedlings and seedlings, moisture conservation, and additional leveling of the field.

In clean, autumn-leveled fields, after early spring harrowing, the soil is not tilled before sowing. In winter fields that have not been leveled since the fall, are clogged with overwintering weeds or carrion, and during a long cold spring, it is necessary to cultivate to a depth of 6–8 cm followed by rolling. The latter increases the temperature of the seed layer by 1.5–3 °C and stimulates the germination of weeds, which will be destroyed by the next pre-sowing cultivation. Pre-sowing cultivation is carried out using steam or beet cultivators with flat-cut tines to a depth of 4–5 cm in a unit with harrows or combined units. Cultivation is carried out across or at an angle to the direction of previous cultivation.

It is necessary that the surface of the field be leveled and free of lumps, since the low placement of beans requires a low cut when harvesting. The height of the ridges and the depth of the furrows should not exceed 4 cm.

Soil herbicides are applied after sowing to the emergence of seedlings with embedding into the soil with harrows to a depth of at least 3 cm or ring-spur rollers, as a result of which the efficiency of nitrogen-fixing bacteria increases.

If there are root weeds and rhizomatous weeds on the field, you can not carry out pre-sowing treatment, but after waiting for the wheatgrass to grow to a height of 10-15 cm, and the sow thistle to have a well-developed rosette, sow and after 3-4 days (before the emergence of soybeans) treat the field with a continuous action herbicide Roundup (glyphosate)

Application of soil herbicides. The appearance of weeds can be delayed by 30–40 days by applying soil herbicides. For their successful action, the soil must have a fine-lumpy structure, and there must be moisture in its upper layer. Taking this into account, it is technologically simpler to use soil herbicides on irrigated lands: they are applied under wet irrigation.

On soybean crops, preparations based on the following active ingredients are effective:

S-metolachlor (Dual Gold)

Acetochlor (Harnes)

Metribuzina (Zenkor)

Pendimethalina (Stomp)

Dimethenamide P (Frontier Optima)

Trifluralin (Treflan)

Prometrina (Gesagard)

Imazethapyr (Pivot)

Imazamox (Pulsar 40).

3. Application of fertilizers.

To form one centner of soybean seeds, 7.5 kg of nitrogen is required, 2.5 kg of phosphorus, 3.5 kg of potassium, 1 kg of magnesium, 2 kg of calcium, 0.4 kg of sulfur. The culture makes good use of the aftereffects of mineral and organic fertilizers, in symbiosis with nodule bacteria, it fixes molecular nitrogen (60-70% of the requirement) from the air, and absorbs hard-to-reach forms of phosphorus from the soil. Therefore, doses and ratios of fertilizers are determined based on soil analysis, based on the availability of nutrients in a particular field and the planned yield on it. The supply of nutrients to the soil also depends on the crop rotations characteristic of these fields. It is also necessary to take into account what kind of harvest the predecessor generated: if it was high, then more fertilizers need to be applied.

Better absorption of nitrogen from the air and an increase in its amount on soybean roots is facilitated by treating seeds with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (inaculants).

The inoculant, like other biological products, replenishes lost functions in plants. Fixation and assimilation of biological nitrogen is one of the main tasks of a rural worker trying to get a good harvest.

Nitrogen-fixing inoculant is the most famous and widespread biological product in the world. Its basis is nodule rhizobial bacteria. Soybean seed inoculant is most in demand all over the world. Soybean is characterized by the fact that it uses a lot of nutrients to form a crop and consumes nutrients unevenly across the phases of growth and development. The nitrogen produced in the process of symbiosis between plant and inoculant is supplied to the plant evenly throughout the entire growing season, and during flowering and filling of beans - to the maximum.

There are currently quite a few manufacturers of this type of fertilizer. The main characteristics for determining the effectiveness and quality of an inoculant include the number of viable microorganisms per unit volume of inoculant, as well as the activity and stability of the strain of nodule bacteria. Depending on the form of release, the inoculant can be dry, liquid or gel-like.

It is better to apply phosphorus-potassium fertilizers for the main cultivation of the soil. Starting doses of fertilizers are applied during sowing, or separately from the seeds during sowing.

4. Preparation for sowing

Seeds are treated with rhizotorfin in a semi-moist manner on the day of sowing in covered areas, barns or in the shade, where direct sunlight does not reach. Treated seeds are sown throughout the day. Basically, the hectare norm of bacterial preparations is 200 g (ml) + 500-800 ml of water per 80-120 kg of seeds.

5. Sowing

Soybean seeds require a significant amount of moisture to germinate. For swelling and normal germination of seeds, 130-160% of their mass is required. It is better to sow soybeans when the top seed layer of soil is warmed to a temperature of 10-15 C. It should also be taken into account that if the soil temperature rises rapidly, then sowing can begin at a soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm of 6-8 C. When choosing a sowing time, take into account the presence of moisture in the seed layer of soil, depending on the growing zone. Usually this is the third ten days of April - the first and second ten days of May.

They begin to sow from later ripening varieties and end with early ripening ones. For the earliest ripening varieties, the recommended row spacing is 15–45 cm, for mid-ripening varieties – 15–45–70 cm.

Depending on the weight of the seeds, seeding rates range from 40-60 to 120-140 kg/ha. The sowing depth is 4-5 cm, and when the top layer dries out and on light soils it is 6-8 cm.

Seeds are sown treated and inoculated with nodule bacteria (rizotorphin). As a rule, it is treated before sowing, and inoculated during sowing. Only treatment with a fungicide based on the active ingredient benomyl (fundazol) can be combined with inoculation on the day of sowing.

6. Crop care

When caring for crops next to chemical protection, the technology provides a system of agrotechnical weed control agents. Soybean crops can be harrowed 3-4 days after sowing, when the seeds have just sprouted and the weeds are in the “white thread” phase. Soybean tolerates harrowing easily; only the bent knee phase, which occurs 2-3 days before emergence, is critical for harrowing.

On soybean crops, depending on the weediness, 1-2 post-emergence harrowings are also carried out, the first time when the plants are well rooted and have reached a height of 10-12 cm. The first harrowing is carried out when the soybean has reached the stage of the first trigeminal leaf, the second - to the third trigeminal leaf. It is better to perform this agricultural technique in the afternoon (then the soybean plants are less injured) across or diagonally to the direction of the rows. Pre-emergence harrowing reduces weed infestation by 40-50%, post-emergence harrowing by 50-60%, and pre-emergence + post-emergence harrowing by 65-75%.

When harrowing before seedlings, the speed of the unit should not exceed 6 km/h, for seedlings – 5 km/h.

Later, one or two inter-row cultivations may be required.

The timing of inter-row treatments and their quantity depend on the appearance of weeds. During the growing season, 2-4 inter-row cultivations are usually carried out, the last one - no later than the budding phase.

7. Cleaning.

It is carried out in the phase of full ripeness at a humidity of 14-16% to prevent injury to the seeds at lower humidity. Soybeans are harvested by direct harvesting.



Soybean crops are placed in row crop sections of crop rotations, in fields free of weeds, with sufficient reserves of moisture and nutrients in the soil.

Soybean for green fodder in its pure form and in mixed crops can be used as a fallow crop. For this purpose, early ripening long-stemmed varieties are selected, which clear the field early and allow the soil to be properly prepared for sowing winter grain crops.

In the European part of Russia, soybeans are placed next to grains, corn, and potatoes.

In areas where the warm period after harvesting early grain lasts about three months or more, in years with sufficient rainfall in the second half of summer, high efficiency of stubble peeling followed by plowing in the fall is observed. In areas with a short post-harvest period, stubble peeling is ineffective.

Deep plowing, which promotes the accumulation of soil moisture, is important for obtaining high soybean yields.

The effectiveness of semi-steam tillage largely depends on the type of weed in the fields. According to A.A. Babich (1974), in the Krasnodar Territory, in fields infested with root shoot weeds, two peelings are carried out before autumn plowing (the first to a depth of 6-8 cm, the second to 10-12 cm), and after mass germination weeds are plowed to a depth of 23-30 cm.

Pre-sowing soil treatment consists of harrowing and cultivation. Soybean grows well on soils with a bulk density of 1.1-1.2 g/cm3.

When plowing in spring, soybean yields often decrease by 50%.

When choosing a method of cultivating soil for soybeans, it is necessary to take into account that for most regions of the country, different-depth tillage in crop rotation is advisable. It must be taken into account that soybean reacts negatively to the compaction of the arable layer. Therefore, a deep flash is carried out under it.

Soybean unevenly absorbs nutrients from germination to flowering: nitrogen - 6-16%, phosphorus - 8.4-12.3, potassium - 9-23.8, calcium - 10-11, magnesium - 6-8%. The remaining amount of nutrients is used by soybeans from the beginning of formation to grain filling. It consumes the maximum amount of nitrogen in the flowering and bean formation phases, phosphorus - during the bean formation period, potassium - 87-95 days after germination, calcium - on the 70-80 day, magnesium on the 73-80 day and sulfur - in the bean formation phase.

For soybeans, the most effective application is N 30-60 P 60-90 K 30-45. Soybeans make good use of the aftereffects of organic fertilizers.

When sowing, fertilizers should be embedded 2-3 cm deeper than the row, with a location 4-5 cm to the side of the row. The application of fertilizers mixed with seeds leads to a decrease in field germination of soybeans.

Lime is applied in the fall before peeling the stubble, followed by incorporation during fall plowing.

For sowing, completed seeds are selected, subjected to air-thermal heating and dressing no later than 20 days before sowing. On the day of sowing, the seeds are inoculated.

Races of soybean nodule bacteria are specific and enter into symbiosis only with this crop. Optimal conditions for the reproduction and symbiotic fixation of bacteria are a neutral reaction of the soil solution, soil moisture 60-70% NV, sufficient illumination, low content of mineral nitrogen, good soil aeration, temperature 24...25 ° C, a sufficient number of bacteria on the seeds, their active penetration inside the root hairs, high photosynthetic activity.

During the period of active work of nodule bacteria, excessive nutrition of plants with easily soluble forms of nitrogen causes premature aging of bacteria and inhibits the formation of new bactesoids. At the beginning of bean formation, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by nodules decreases, and the plants begin to need mineral nitrogen. Soybean nodule bacteria are more sensitive to herbicides than bacteria of lupine and pea (A. A. Babich, 1973).

Inoculation of soybean seeds before sowing not only increases the yield of grain and green mass, but also increases the content of protein and carotene.

Sowing of soybeans begins when the soil at a depth of 5-6 cm warms up to 12-14%. This usually coincides with the end of sowing corn for grain. When sowing dates deviate towards early ones, the yield decreases daily by 0.9-1.1%, towards late ones - by 0.6-0.7% compared to the optimal period (A. A. Babich, 1974).

The method of sowing soybeans is most often wide-row with row spacing of 45-70 cm, but it can be either belt or row. The seeding rate is 200-800 thousand viable seeds per 1 hectare, depending on the direction of use and moisture conditions in different soil and climatic zones. As you move from north to south, plant density and seeding rates decrease, which is explained by the conditions of moisture supply and the characteristics of the thermal and nutritional regimes of the soil.

The sowing depth of soybean seeds should be set taking into account humidity, temperature of the top layer of soil and seed quality. Sowing to a depth of 2-4 cm (shallow planting) and 8-10 cm (deep planting) reduces field germination and soybean yield.

The ridge sowing method for soybeans is used in the Far Eastern regions, on heavy, waterlogged soils with a small humus horizon.

Care of crops consists of pre- and post-emergence harrowing, inter-row cultivation of crops, as well as the use of soil herbicides.

Harrowing before emergence is carried out when soybean seedlings do not exceed the size of the seed. At this time, the harrow destroys weed seedlings and loosens the top layer of soil.

The first post-emergence harrowing of soybeans is carried out when the plants are well rooted and therefore will be little damaged by harrows. In most varieties, this period coincides with the formation of the first trifoliate leaf on the plant. The second harrowing with light harrows is carried out when the plant height reaches 10-15 cm. To reduce damage to plants, harrowing is carried out across the rows in the daytime, when plant turgor decreases.

To destroy weeds during the growing season, mechanized inter-row cultivation is carried out. When growing soybeans for feed, it is necessary to carry out 3-4 treatments of row spacing with a gradual decrease in their depth from 10-12 to 5-6 cm.

In addition to agrotechnical methods of controlling weeds, pre-sowing, pre-emergence and post-emergence treatment of soybean crops with herbicides, as well as chemical weeding of predecessors, are widely used.

Pre-sowing treatment with herbicides is carried out 2-4 weeks before sowing for pre-sowing cultivation. For this purpose, soil herbicides are used: treflan, prometrin, linuron, etc.

In some cases, the application of herbicides before sowing or before emergence is ineffective either due to insufficient rainfall or the presence of resistant weeds. Therefore, it is better to apply them after germination. The main methods of post-emergence application are continuous, band and directional. For this purpose, contact preparations are used, as well as soil herbicides. The most intensive method of using herbicides on soybean crops is band spraying, which is combined with cultivation. The dose of the drug is reduced by 2 times.

The risk of damage to soybean can be significantly reduced by using herbicides with a short-term toxic effect or combination preparations for its predecessors.

Soybeans are harvested in the phase of full ripeness and in a short time. The main signs of full ripeness for most soybean varieties are the falling of leaves, drying out of the stems, and the detachment of dry seeds from the leaves.

To preserve the sowing qualities of the seeds, immediately after harvesting, the seeds are cleaned and dried. Important grain is dried for 4-6 hours at a coolant temperature of 36 ° C, then it is raised to 40 ° C and maintained for 6-8 hours. Sometimes the humidity reaches 16%; drying is continued at a temperature of 45°C.

The maximum yield of soybean green mass is formed even when the beans are fully filled, when the seeds in them are still green. Harvesting reduces crop productivity, and delays impair forage quality. Harvesting soybeans for feed must be completed before the leaves begin to yellow and fall off.

In areas with a long growing season, you can increase the time of using green mass for feed or for laying haylage and silage by sowing 2-3 varieties from late April to early July at several times with an interval of 10-20 days.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Sow legumes when the soil is well warmed up, and do not forget about abundant watering during flowering. Soybean is an important crop because it can provide vegetable protein and oil. In addition, it has good profitability. Growing soybeans does not require special conditions. Therefore, summer residents often began to plant it in their garden plots.

Soybeans are heat-loving plants. For its good growth, it needs warm days and nights without frost. The plant grows most actively at daytime temperatures of +32 degrees and at night temperatures of +22 degrees. The daylight hours should be 12 hours. The culture is high-yielding.

The average height of the plant is 0.6-1 meter. It has trifoliate leaves, which fall off after the crop ripens. Soybean blooms with small flowers collected in inflorescences - brushes; insects are weakly attracted due to the lack of a strong smell. The length of the fruits does not exceed 6 cm, they contain a maximum of 4 beans, usually 2-3. The seeds are greenish or yellow in color.

This plant is relatively “new” in the gardens of our citizens. Not everyone has experience growing this crop in their gardens. Experts offer several tips to help you get a high-quality and abundant harvest.

1. Soybeans can be grown in areas where cereals and corn previously grew, and can be sown after potatoes and beets. But after cabbage or other legumes, it is better not to sow soybeans. And after sunflower, too, because these plants can cause active spread of bacteriosis in the soil.
2. Having grown soybeans, the next year in the same place you can get a good harvest of wheat, rapeseed, and vegetable crops.
3. It is impossible to sow soybeans in the same field for two years in a row, as it significantly impoverishes the land.
4. The soil should be prepared in advance. In the selected area in the fall, it is necessary to apply fertilizer to a depth of approximately 20-30 cm. In the spring, the field is harrowed. It should be smooth, without furrows or bumps with a height difference of more than 4 cm. After all, soybeans have beans that are quite low and will be difficult to collect.
5. It is necessary to prepare not only the soil for sowing, but also the seeds. The peculiarity of the preparation is that the planting material should be pickled under normal home conditions and then treated with rhizotorphin so that nodule microorganisms actively develop. The solution consumption is from 70 to 80 liters for every ton of seeds. Sometimes, instead of treating seeds with rhizotorphin, ammonium nitrate is used to apply to the soil. This method is more expensive, but significantly increases productivity.
6. You cannot sow soybean seeds using air seeders.
7. It is important to water and fertilize plants in a timely manner, especially with compounds of molybdenum, sulfur, and cobalt.
8. To ensure that the yield does not decrease, you should periodically change the varieties grown on the site and update the seed, as well as apply crop rotation.

Planting soybeans in open ground

The legume crop is sown when the soil warms up well - up to 10 degrees to a depth of 5 cm and the threat of night frosts disappears. This is the seed planting depth. It is better to wait until the soil warms up to 12-14 degrees. Therefore, soybeans are often sown in late April or early May. At the same time, there must be a sufficient amount of moisture in the ground.

Under favorable conditions, seedlings will appear within a week. If you sow a legume crop earlier, it will sprout late, be susceptible to various diseases, and the stem will elongate excessively.

All dicotyledonous crops are very demanding on sowing depth. The beans should not be buried more than 3-5 cm. If the sowing is done deeper, the plant will not sprout at all. The distance between the rows is left at 40-60 cm. About 40 seeds are sown per meter.

The moisture content in the soil is of decisive importance; it must be retained using various agricultural techniques. For example, loosen the soil only slightly so that it does not dry out. It is beneficial when a layer of plant residues is preserved on the soil.

Soil acidity is important for soybeans; it prefers neutral or slightly acidic soils. The best option is 6.2…8. At lower pH values, the plant is not cultivated.

Features of soybean care

The culture is demanding on ambient temperature and lighting. If there is not enough sunlight for the plant, then it greatly lengthens the stems, the leaf cuttings also become long, as a result, the ovary is poorly formed and falls off prematurely.

Most of all, this legume plant requires heat during the period when it actively blooms and produces fruits. At temperatures below 14 degrees, soybeans stop growing.

It is important to weed the plants in a timely manner, remove weeds, and loosen the soil between the rows. Harrowing is done several times. The first time 4 days after sowing, then when the plant reaches a height of 15 cm, the third time - when the third leaves are formed. You need to cultivate the space between the rows to remove weeds as they appear. During the growing season there can be from 2 to 5. Without additional watering and fertilization, soybean will not produce a high yield.

Soybean fertilizer

For this leguminous crop, a sufficient content of microelements in the soil is very important. This primarily concerns molybdenum and boron. This is due to the fact that the development of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live on the roots of the crop directly depends on these elements. Nodule microorganisms fix nitrogen from the air, enriching the soil with it. Foliar feeding with these substances has a positive effect on crop growth, especially in the initial stages.

Leaf treatment ensures the synthesis of chlorophyll. If this is not done, the soybeans will have an uncharacteristic color: light green and even yellow.

For fertilizing, nitrogen fertilizers are used at the rate of 10-20 kg per hectare of soil, as well as phosphorus (15-30 kg) and potash (25-60 kg). During the period of active growth, urea is added (to fertilize the leaves you will need 50 grams of the composition per bucket of water), nitrophoska, and UAN. Before sowing, ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate is added to the soil where soybeans will grow.

How to tie?

Large bushes are tied to stakes about a meter high. For this purpose, any branches can be used, with the exception of willow. She gets used to it quickly. Metal rods are also often used. It is recommended to use polyethylene cords or strips of soft fabric for garters.

Rules for watering soybeans

Another factor that is important for a leguminous plant is the amount of water and air humidity. Before flowers appear, soybeans can still tolerate dry periods, but this reduces yield, because the lower beans will not develop well.

When the beds are abundantly covered with flowers and grains begin to set, the plant needs a sufficient amount of moisture, otherwise the harvest will have to be forgotten. Also during this growing season, moist air is desirable for soybeans. Therefore, watering should be frequent and abundant. In dry conditions, the crop simply sheds its flowers, the first formed ovary and does not form a new one.

It is better to water the legume crop with warm water, and then, to prevent moisture from evaporating, mulch the soil with peat or straw.

How to process soybeans?

To protect soybean crops from an abundance of weeds, it is necessary to carry out timely treatment with herbicides. Most often they use Harnes, which is applied at the rate of 2 liters per hectare of land. Sprouts tolerate herbicides well in the growth phase from the first trefoil to the beginning of the formation of the third trefoil. The deadline for weed control is the appearance of the fifth level of leaves, before the formation of buds. Later, treating crops with herbicides is very harmful to it.

The plant’s immunity is quite weak, so monitoring the presence of the first signs of the disease is very important for it. Among the pests, aphids and spider mites love to inhabit this crop. Traditional methods include treatment with decoctions of wormwood and hot pepper. If the growing season occurs with excessive humidity and at the same time low temperatures, the plant may suffer from powdery mildew.

Then they spray with copper-based preparations, for example, copper sulfate. All damaged parts of the plant must be removed and burned. For prevention, it is better to treat with Imazamox, Imazethapyr or Bentazone when the first 5-7 leaves appear on the seedlings.

How to harvest soybeans?

Early varieties of legumes ripen already on the 85th day, while late varieties require 245 days. Also, the harvesting period depends on the climatic conditions of cultivation and the region. Therefore, soybeans are harvested from the end of July to the end of September.

The main factor signaling that it is time to harvest is the plant shedding its leaves. By this time the beans will turn gray. They need to be collected quite quickly, within 3-4 days, otherwise they will begin to open on their own and the harvest will be lost. In the fields, soybeans are harvested using combines; in small beds, they are mowed and threshed. After the beans are harvested, the stems of the plants are removed from the field and the leaves are simply dug up.