Planting soy beans

Mark Poss

Well-known Member
First planting soy beans with a 290 planter, wanting to know space between the seeds. Also what type of fertilizer to use for RR beans? Thanks, Mark
 
You need 160000 seeds per acre. Do the math figuring your row width, and number of rows on your planter. Fertilizer requirements are best determined by a soil test and not dependent on RR soys or conventional. Ben
 
I tried beans with my 290 set on 36" rows. I could not get high enough populations with the plates I had. I did it so I could cultivate them, compared to drilling them. Maybe if I'd planted them twice in the same row I could have done better. All depends on what plates you have available. When I was a kid we planted them with a John Deere 999 horse planter, but the yields couldn't have been great.
 
IIRC, 160,000 population is about 9-11 seeds per foot in 30 inch rows. Check the seed bag- may have a chart on it.
 
Buddy of mine planted beans with his Deere 494 planter, planted them in 38 inch rows like the corn he picked with his mounted picker but double planted the beans offset 19 inchs the second pass. Really improved his yields but he said it really increased his planting time to get over his 22 acres, was actually planting 44 acres. With your 290 planter doubling your planting time could be a bad idea. BTO I worked for was an early adopter of 30 inch rows in beans. He took two 490 planters and built a 690 planter, 6 30 inch rows. Even had a 6-30 frt mounted cultivator for his 520 tractor.
 
How to figure seeds per foot of row for a targeted number of seeds per acre planted....

Multiply the "TARGETED SEEDS PER ACRE AT PLANTING" times the "ROW SPACING IN INCHES" then divide that number by 522720.

With our old planters we used to get 'em all set up & working then put two marks on the ground 10' apart. Then we either plugged a chute or caught the seeds in a coffee can which ever worked depending on the planter. Used a shop rag or blue paper towels in one planter. Then we started traveling at planting speed (which was never very fast given our old planters) & engaged the planter drive at the first mark disengaging it at the second 10' away. Then we'd either count what was caught in the can or put a hat under the shoe & unplug the chute catching the beans. For the last test pass, we'd plug every chute & count them all taking the average.

We used 30" rows so we'd have been looking for an average of 91.8 seeds dropped per 10' of travel. This worked even with an old 2 row McCormick horse drawn when Dad drove & I ran the planter. It always amazed me how closely they worked out.
 

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