Soybeans are moving from flower to pod development and fill. So, what’s happening? As our soybeans are currently in the reproductive stages – most around R3 or later – many producers are done with their trips across the field with herbicides, fungicides and/or insecticides. The crop is now in Mother Nature’s hands, right? Or is it? I won’t argue the value of a million-dollar rain at the right time, but what if it doesn’t rain? What if it is excessively hot, or excessively humid? What if there were ways to lessen nature’s negative effects on our crops when things [...]

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of three articles on the role of hormones in soybean plants. Soybean reproduction is all about supporting and increasing cell division. Cell division drives flower fertility and survival, pod set, beans per pod and, ultimately, seed size and weight. Soybean plants have a unique trigger which occurs at R1, but often goes unnoticed. The first flowers appearance triggers a signal in the plant to focus its energy on increasing root growth. If you recall from our first article, the roots are the major source of the plant hormone, cytokinin. What [...]