Soybeans Get a Boost from Compost Tea

Influence of Foliar Application of Compost tea on Growth, Yield and Quality of Soybean
International Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry
April 2021
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      Maybe you don’t realize how much soybeans affect your daily life, but the United States truly wouldn’t be what it is today without the valuable legume. Soy is the second most grown crop in the United States, with the majority of its production going to animal feed and vegetable oil. Any research done on it has immense implications for agriculture and the economy.  Here, we have a group of soy scientists who tested how the application of compost tea affects growth, yield, and quality of soybean.
Compost tea is an organic form of fertilizer that uses waste products to create a nutrient- and microbe-rich solution that is applied to the leaves of the plants. In this experiment, the compost tea consisted of a mix of cow manure, plant residues, and molasses. The tea had a high amount of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are essential for plant growth. The biological brew also contained moderate amounts of copper, iron, manganese, and zinc, which are all important micronutrients beneficial in plant growth. Because of these extra nutrients added to the plants with compost tea application, the researchers believed that high application rates would increase the amount and quality of the soybean growth. The researchers set up an experiment that tested tea to water concentrations of ranging from 0% (the control treatment) to 75%, meaning a 50% mix would be half tea, half water.   
Then the scientists sat back and watched the plants grow.  The measured several growth characteristics, plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, number of branches, number of pods, and dry weight. For every one of these, the treatment of 50% compost tea with fertilizer had the greatest result. These results were followed by the 75% compost tea with fertilizer and then 25% compost tea with fertilizer. In every category, the control, or plants not treated with tea, had the lowest results. At the end of the experiment, the researchers also measured the plants for straw yield, grain yield, seed test weight, percent oil, percent protein, and protein yield. Again, the treatment of 50% compost tea with fertilizer showed the best results in every category. The control again showed the lowest results.
These results show that not only does compost tea improve growth, but it also has the potential to increase the quality of soybean crops. The researchers think that this is because of the relationships between the microbes present in the compost tea and the plants.  This type of information can  have a major important impacts on food system worldwide. As advocates for minimizing our reliance on environmentally costly materials, we look forward this research getting put to good use, whether on the commercial farm or in the backyard garden.   

R&D Author: Maya Shyldlowski