Early in my agronomic career a fellow told me about the importance of filling the pods in the top couple of nodes on a soybean plant. He called them “Florida Beans.” He said that if you could fill the nodes with pods the extra yield would pay the way for a grower to take his wife to Florida for a winter vacation.

Alpine foliar fertilizer programs and products will help you to achieve these much needed beans at the end of the season. One must remember, though, that foliar fertilizers are not a silver bullet that will solve all your problems.  Foliars are to be used in conjunction with a well-balanced soil fertility program that includes an in-furrow starter.

It is always best to apply foliars when the soybean plant is in the reproductive stages.  The plant requires considerable nutrients to set and produce seeds.  The soybean gives us many opportunities to help with foliars as it flowers and grows throughout the season, unlike corn or wheat which flowers only once.

A soybean plant produces 10-12 flowers per node, yet it only produces 2-4 pods.  It aborts the rest so that it can survive.  If we can flush the plant with nutrients, we can get it to set and produce more pods and seeds.  If you can hang on to one more flower on each node and you set 4 pods instead of 3—that is a 25% yield increase. The goal however is to get all 10 or 12 flowers to set pods

I have seen many instances of large clusters of pods on beans that growers have used an Alpine foliar program.

You too can maximize your “Florida Beans” and make your wife happy with a trip south this winter.  Contact your Alpine Dealer or District Sales Manager and find out how.

– Brad K