Weed Specialist Discusses Edible Beans

Feb 13, 2019

The province's weed specialist has some advice for edible bean growers.

Tammy Jones was a guest speaker at the Edible Bean Meetings held last week in Altona and Portage la Prairie.

"I think we need to look at narrowing our rows so that we have canopy closure earlier," she said. "Try and grow as competitive of a bean as you can within edible beans. That's a little bit challenging, but a leafier bean, something that's going to help with with canopy closure. Also, make sure that your seeding rates are up as high as you can and then we need to look at either cover crops or inter-row tillage to maybe use some of those tools to minimize our weed pressure rather than just looking at herbicides as the only tool out there."

Jones says if using herbicides, it's important to find one that suits edible beans and to consider layering them.

Source : Steinbachonline

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.