I heard a fellow say no wonder SabrEx works so well, everyone uses glyphosate and glyphosate kills beneficial trichaderma fungi. There are other ways to promote beneficial trichaderma and other bacteria and fungi.
"At the end of the growing season you may be ready to rest, but your soil is not. One final effort can make a big difference: cover cropping. Even small gardens will benefit from the use of cover crops, or "green manures". Tilling, weeding, harvesting and foot traffic of most home gardens tends to destroy soil structure. Planting cover crops is an easy way to revitalize the soil, and help soil tilth and subsequent plant growth. Cover crops are planted in vacant space and worked into the soil after they grow instead of being eaten. They provide a number of advantages to the otherwise wasteful use of space during your garden's off-season.
Cover crops help to retain the soil, lessen erosion, and decrease the impact of precipitation on the garden by slowing the runoff of water. They also reduce mineral leaching and compaction, and suppress perennial and winter annual weed growth. The top growth adds organic matter when it is tilled into the garden soil. The cover crop's root system also provides organic matter and opens passageways that help improve air and water movement in the soil.
Success in the growth of cover crops requires proper selection of the kind of cover crop, correct timing of seeding, and good management techniques. There are many traditional cover crops to select from, including annual ryegrass, winter rye, winter wheat, oats, white clover, sweet clover, hairy vetch and buckwheat. Grasses are easier to grow than legumes such as clover because they germinate more quickly and do not require inoculation. Small seeded crops are more difficult to establish than large seeded types such as oats and buckwheat. In poorly drained areas, grasses may be easier to get started. Winter rye and ryegrass grow in a very dense habit and are much more effective at shading out weeds than oats or small seeded legumes. Availability of seed and cost are other important considerations.
It's time to start vaccinating your soil if you haven't already!
Ed Winkle
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Before my retirement from the USDA/ARS and OARDC in 2003, Dr. Norm Fausey, USDA/ARS Ag Engineer at Ohio Sate University in Columbus,and I, conducted several years of cooperative research at the OARDC at Wooster, OH, on subirrigation/drainage management, using drainage lines and control stands to maintain a constant water table.
Results from this research indicated that when combined with solid seeding in 7-inch rows and lodging resistant semi-dwarf soybean varieties, 90 to 100 bu/a soybean yields were possible using this
water table management system.
If lodging of taller, conventional indeterminate varieties can be
avoided (absence of a rain and wind storm that would flatten the
taller plants), these high yields can also be obtained with
conventional varieties. However, lodging can significantly lower the
yield potential of these taller varieties.
I believe another factor contributing to Rehm’s record yield this year was the early warm spring temperatures that resulted in the soybeans flowering (entering the reproductive period) much earlier in the growing season than normal, when the day length was longer and the light intensity is higher (i.e., more light energy available).
Results from 18 years of soybean irrigated maximum yield research at
OARDC indicated a strong positive correlation between average May
temperature and the maximum yields obtained. The warmer the temperatures in May the earlier the onset of flowering and the higher the maximum yields obtained.
Mr.Rhem’s record yields indicates the potential for well managed
sub-irrigation/drainage systems to increase soybean yields in Ohio and
the Midwest."
I and many of the followers of this blog are trying to do the same thing! Keep learning, sharing and promoting high yield, high profit crops. "Teach with your fields," as mentor Paul Reed from Washington, Iowa says.
Ed