Infurrow Rhizolizer Application

This experimental field was in Edmund County, South Dakota. Soybeans AG11X8 variety was planted in 30-inch rows in strips on June 1, 2021. The purpose of this experiment is to compare the effects of Rhizolizer (Locus Agricultural Solutions) treatment (to augment natural microbial activity) against a no Rhizolizer treatment. Rate of the Rhizolizer was 6 oz/ac and was applied in furrow during soybean planting in 80 feet wide strips. This experiment had 5 replications of each treatment. UAV data was collected using Fix-wing AgEagle UAV with a GoPro sensor (GoPro.com) with 4 band information. To determine the canopy coverage and plant density, the 4-band data was collected during early vegetative crop growth (June 22, 2021) and later growth phase of soybean crop (August 13, 2021) to determine canopy cover. The reflectance differences in the NIR and green bands were used to calculate GNDVI of the field. GNDVI value ranges from -1 to 1. Higher GNDVI values during early growth phase represent higher plant density and higher canopy coverage. Similarly higher GNDVI during later growing phase represent better plant heath and yield.

Overall Rhizolizer application increased yield by 3.29 bu/ac over the no treatment areas. This difference was significant at p=0.03 (Figure 1 & Table 1). Depending on the cost, this yield increase may be advantageous to apply. During the early UAV flight, differences between the applied and control strips were not observed (Table 2). In the later season flight, the GNDVI was numerically greater in Rhizolizer applied strips compared to the strips were Rhizolizer was applied (Table 3). However, due to variability, the averages were similar. More research at multiple sites and perhaps determining optimal timing of the UAV data collection to detect differences are needed to determine if the Rhizolier application is consistent in different environmental conditions.