What are the precautions for saving soybean seeds at home

Soybean is a self-pollinating crop, so seeds can be saved at home. If seeds are bought every year for planting, the planting cost would be too high for farmers to afford. However, there are also many issues to pay attention to when saving seeds. Let's take a look together below.

1. Do not save seeds for many years

Many farmers save soybean seeds for many years during cultivation. Although this reduces planting costs, many farmers also find that the yield gets worse year after year. This is caused by saving seeds for many years. Saving seeds continuously for many years can cause variety aging, variety mixing, seed degeneration, and reduced stress resistance, ultimately leading to reduced yield. Therefore, home-saved seeds must be renewed regularly to ensure seed quality. Generally, seeds need to be purchased again every 2-3 years to ensure stable yield.

2. Choose varieties suited to the local area

When buying varieties, many farmers prefer full-pod varieties. But once a low-temperature year occurs, this can cause major losses. Therefore, excellent varieties should be selected according to the local climate and environment, and introduction should be based on the year-round accumulated temperature. What suits you is the most important.

3. Purification and rejuvenation

The field used for seed saving must be cleaned of off-types and inferior plants. Commodity soybeans cannot simply be screened and then used as seeds, because the quality of such seeds cannot be guaranteed. Plants with different flower colors should be removed, and weak, diseased, and mixed plants should be promptly removed according to differences in leaf type, pod setting, and growth form, selecting plants with high purity and robust uniformity for seed saving. After maturity, cut or pull up the seed plants by the roots and air-dry them, keeping the plants for after-ripening, and thresh after the busy farming season has passed. The benefit of keeping the plants for after-ripening is that it helps the accumulation of nutrients in the seeds. It is a storage method that protects seed vigor. The outside of the seed is protected by the pod shell, which can buffer changes in seed moisture.

The above is an introduction to the precautions for saving soybean seeds at home. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.