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August 7
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Our field is starting to cover the middles. The leaves from opposite rows are almost touching in the
middles. This should have occurred earlier in the season, but with the cool May and early June the
plants didn't get a good early start. When the middles are covered, soil evaporation is reduced and
the soybean plants are more competitive with weeds.
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Plants in our row still appear to be doing well. If you were driving down the road you would
think this soybean field was doing great. But we know there aren't very many pods on these plants.
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You can still see some flowering at the top of the plant and tips of the branches. The pods
are getting bigger. Under the circumstances these plants are hanging on. For the past week,
the temperatures have been hanging around 100 F.
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Our second plant continues to manage the conditions better than the first plant. Do
you suppose the second plant has a better root system? Does it have less competition with its
neighboring plants? Or did the hail damaged plants never fully recover? I don't know the
answer to that, but it probably is a combination of factors.
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