As eager as farmers may be to do so, it’s still too cold to plant soybeans in Manitoba.
“Mother Nature is telling me it’s not time to plant (soybeans),” Bruce Brolley, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives’ pulse crop specialist, said in an interview Friday.
“In addition to the cold soil temperature, the grass isn’t green, the winter wheat is still trying to come out of dormancy, the buds haven’t broken on the trees. It’s not soybean planting time yet. Maybe towards the end of next week, but not right now.”
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The soil temperature should be at least approaching 10°C before that can happen, said Brolley, who has been getting calls from antsy farmers itching to get their soybeans planted.
Sunny days and dry fields belie the cooler-than-normal temperatures and even the calendar. Brolley said planting soybeans starting May 6 or so is appropriate during an earlier than normal spring. Most years soil temperatures are warm enough to start planting soybeans by May 15, he added.
Seeding soybeans into cool soil can reduce seedling vigour, even if the seed is treated, Brolley said.
The seed, he said, “is not going to germinate until the soil temperature hits 10°C… All it’s going to do is swell up, leak sugars and be attractive to disease and rot in the ground. Between your loss in the plant stand and loss of vigour, it’s not good.”
When forced to seed soybeans farmers should plant their best quality seed and it should be treated, Brolley said. He also recommends planting on black fields, in the afternoon.
“Those are little things you can do to maximize a microclimate,” he said.
Rather than seed when it’s still to cold, Brolley recommends doing something else.
“Go fishing, visit the grandchildren, do something constructive, but don’t be putting soybeans in the ground right now,” he said.
Farmers shouldn’t even think about seeding edible beans until May 20, Brolley stressed. Edible beans also prefer warm soil at planting time. Newly emerged edible beans are very susceptible to late spring frost and the earlier they’re seeded, the greater the risk from frost.
– Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator.
