(Sorry for the delay in service, but the blog writer has been delayed with mountains of administrative stuff lately. You know how important that is to research, right?) So as you have probably figured out, the NCRS is more than just the finest crop fertility research facility anywhere. It hosts Farm Shows (AgroExpo) and also is a training facility. Like the day after the AgroExpo, a bunch of AgroLiquid Retail Partners hung around for a day of agronomy training. There were three outstanding morning presentations in the shop. One of which was by Darren Hefty who was kind enough to stay and talk about what to look for in the soil for growing top crops. Of course he referred to the research-proven AgroLiquid nutrition.
Then we all loaded up the wagons for some stops in the field to bring folks up to date on recent research findings. Like Stephanie here shares research results about foliar fertilizer applications to corn, including use of the 360 Undercover.
Agronomist John covered soil and tissue testing. It was good info. Why take the time to do something if you aren't going to do it right. I like the saying: "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" That's why every one of these blog posts is done right!
We also had a field diagnostic stop. Why are those soybeans short and uneven? If you said photon torpedo strikes, well you would be wrong. It is from soybean cyst nematodes (SCN). Only a couple from the group correctly diagnosed it by looking. Fortunately intern Katherine is a plant pathology major at the Ohio State University, and has worked in a lab that dealt with SCN. So she had plenty to share, and did a great job telling us all we needed to know about the lowly nematode. She did such a good job that the sky turned Scarlet and Gray for this Buckeye. (Katherine was a delight to have at the NCRS this summer, as were all the interns. But we had frequent debates about which OSU was tops.)
Here is a close up pic of the nematode cysts, the white things there. Those are females and loaded with eggs. The larger normal beneficial soybean nodules are at the bottom. Oddly enough a number of years ago we contracted SCN in this sandy soil and worked to grow several years of corn and have since planted soybeans with SCN genetic resistance. And had not seen it for several (maybe ten?) years and actually kind of forgot about it. Well for the AgroExpo we planted a new variety from a seed company in this spot and developed nemo's. I asked Tim for the variety info and this variety did not have any SCN resistance. So it showed that even years later, the SCN is lying in wait for a susceptible root to grow it's way.
