Ultra Late Soybeans
By: Rome Ethredge
Soybeans planted after corn or other crop harvest, in late July and early August are once again moving very fast towards maturity. Heat, irrigation and long sunshiny days have pushed them along as usual. Here’s some photos I took of some that are entering R6 growth stage. Also called the Full Seed stage, it starts when at any of the 4 uppermost nodes on the plant we see the pod cavity filled. A good way to make sure you’re there is if you see the ends of the bean “squared off” as in the third photo. You see where the bean so filled the cavity that the pressing on the next bean flattened it. At this stage less water is needed.
Note that these late beans will be shorter than full season beans and that is a challenge with them especially when harvesting. There’s a section in the UGA Soybean Production Guide concerning this production system starting on page 18. https://gasoybeans.caes.uga.edu/content/dam/caes-subsite/soybeans/docs/2019-Soybean-Production-Guide.pdf
Leaf yellowing is beginning and soon we’ll have leaf drop.
Pests seen and treated for this year were Soybean loopers, Kudzu bugs, Stinkbugs, and Garden fleahoppers. Some Whiteflies were observed but they weren’t bad in most cases.