15 vs. 30 inch beans opinions please

According to Pioneer literature, any yield advantage of 15" beans is lost if the field must be entered during late V to early R stage to side-dress or apply pesticide. The obvious answer is to stay out of the field, but I have applied 5-15-15 @ 4 GPA at the R stage with good results on my 30" rows. Before planting 15" rows, should the fertilizer rate at planting be bumped a little bit (currently 7 GPA) to avoid running down the beans, or leave it alone and let the additional rows make up the difference? Also, someone posted a few days back about shifting the drawbar and going back over the field to make double rows. Since this is more or less doubling plants per acre, should the planting rate be reduced, or left at the target population? thanks, Fritz

If your double planting then you set the planter to plant HALF the target population. Remember your double planting.

The yield difference between 15 and 30 inch rows is very different in different locations. In general the better the soil the less the difference. The further north or the later you plant you will see a bigger yield advantage in the narrower rows.

Also the results from side dressing fertilizer in beans at later stages is hit or miss as well. I can tell you this for a fact. Most of the time you will see little to zero gain over just adding some additional fertilizer pre-plant. Four gallons of 5-15-15 is such a small amount when sprayed over and acre you really do not get much of a bump. Take the cost of the 5-15-15 and add $7 for the cost to apply it. Take that amount of money an buy more pre-plant fertilizer as a dry product and you will see a better results the majority of the time.

Grid sampling has much the same results. IF you take the cost of doing the extra soil samples and the cost to apply the fertilizer in the grid, it rarely will beat just spending the same amount on additional fertilizer on the entire field.

I have found that narrower row deans never hurts yields and can make big difference some years. If going to 15 from 30 I would raise population 20%. Say from 150 to 180,000. If you know you are going to sidedress you can skip the wheel rows when planting.

The options here are either 15 inch or 7 inch row beans. We use a750 Deere drill and block off a couple of runs with duct tape on where the sprayer wheels run.

Thanks, some good ideas to ponder.

I plant some of mine at a half rate in 30" rows and plant the second time at a 45 degree angle. I plant some in 30" rows and I can't tell much yield difference. I have to watch the weeds closer in wider rows. I quit drilling because I needed to plant more beans to get a stand.

The biggest difference I have seen that our Kenzie splitter meters the seed and the 750 drill more or less is a controlled spill. I also see better emergence with the splitter. The one advantage of the drill is that thing will plant beans into really hard ground.

Do you sow wheat? We use the 750 for wheat and beans. We also have a converted Deere planter on 19 inch rows. We have used the drill and the planter in the same field. Which does better? depends on the year.

I'm a firm believer of 30 inch rows, but I do my own spraying and can't stand to see crop driven on to spray. It just works well in my soils, too. I'm with JD - for me the bang for the buck is adding the money from liquid to your granular account and putting on good dry fertilizer. Liquid is so pricey for the stuff that's not all salt. I've got liquid applicators on my 1760 but haven't used them in two years. I own more acres than I rent and the rentals are very long term, so it makes sense to go dry and see a couple of years for return.

Back when we raised soys we found that it depended on the height / maturity of the seed , type of climate and an often overlooked thing....bee population / accessability to blossoms. Without hired bees (hives) we would go 30" rows and tall breed. Even then, on a real good year there was such a thick canopy , we wished we hired bees. Unpollinated blossoms make nothing. One has to plant soys with ease of pollination in mind. That's just as important as plant population. Mold and smut do no good either. Got to leave room. Just our experience.

I had (have, still) a 15 inch bean planter, really liked it but it is old plate units. My 6 row 30 inch planter is much more accurate. I've been using the 30 inch planter the last few years.

My yields have really been going up, due to tiling, better fertility program, and the last 2 years good August weather for beans.

In an ideal world I think 15 inch rows are really good for my location. But - the 30 inch has worked well, very well, and saved some bean seed cost with better population control.

I'd like to go back to 15 inch, but the 30 has really done well.

For a while all the craze was drilled beans around here. Hardly anyone is any more. They never looked good from the road, must not have done well in the combine hopper either.

We are on really hard to grow ground for beans - wet, cold, high ph to very high ph. Things might be quite different in different dirt.

JD and most other manufacturers sell a special sprocket to plant at half rate or there a bouts, if you wish to double back with a wider row planter.

I still use the 750 for wheat. Only plant about 20 acres every few years for the straw. I have a small grain seeder on it so we plant hay with it,and a lot of people borrow it for planting hay or pasture. I see several people around here planting wheat on 15" rows.

Back in the early 1980's I was sort of "hobby" farming and all I had to plant corn and beans with was an old John Deere 490 shoe runner opener type planter I set up on 36 inch rows. On my bigger fields I got 35-45 bushels per acre planting the beans at the heaviest rate the planter could do. My last year I tried double planting on a 4 1/2 acre field right by my house. I was pulling the planter there with my little John Deere H tractor that could handle it on a level area even with the fertilizer hoppers full. I planted the field once then went right back and planted it again offsetting the first rows by about 4 inches....I only cultivated the beans...no sprays and got 360 sold clean bushels off the 4 1/2 acres. Minimum input costs....good yield....only problem only got 5.50 a bushel in 1984. Lowest price beans had been in years.