Replanting

Sometimes, plant stands are reduced by disease, soil crusting, herbicide injury, hail, insects, slugs, and flooding. If crop insurance covers the damage, consult the insurance agent before taking action. When all plants of a field are lost, it is realistic to replant if adequate growing season remains for the crop to mature. Areas of fields may be replanted while leaving the remainder of the field as is, and areas of inadequate stands can be thickened by interplanting additional seed (e.g., repairplant). If possible, repair-plant to improve the final stand instead of completely starting over. If the stand loss is random or erratic throughout the field, a stand count should be taken to determine the number of plants remaining. The minimum soybean stand required to produce 95% of a full yield has been found in research to be as low as 50,000 plants per acre, but more than that may be safer in the case of adverse growing conditions. Soybean plants have a remarkable ability to compensate for open spaces by developing auxiliary branches that set additional pods. These auxiliary branches allow the plant to close open spaces and yield two or three times as much as plants that are crowded from normal planting populations. Stand loss that leaves fewer than 50,000 to 60,000 evenly distributed plants per acre warrants replanting or repair-planting. Additionally, a stand loss pattern that leaves areas of more than 6 to 10 square feet without any plants should be considered for replant.