The lab took a trip to the Como Park Conservatory to see the Corpse Flower Horace to celebrate Devon's hard work in the lab and exciting next steps!  Everyone took part in a picnic lunch (wisely before seeing the stinky bloom) and then headed in to wait in a long line to get their own turn at seeing Horace up close.  

May 14, 2024

Planting out started in earnest yesterday with grad student soybean projects getting started in the morning and by the afternoon we were planting in the crossing blocks.  Today Sonia Bolvaran did some hand planting in the field during some exceptionally beautiful weather (seen here).  

The award seeks to promote a broader and deeper understanding of the interconnected food systems and to develop leadership and collaboration skills through funding and experiential learning activities

Today was Maheus Pinhal's last day with the project before heading off to start his M.S. program at Auburn this summer.  We will miss him and wish him the best! 

Students and staff are busy packaging seed as we prepare field trials for a busy planting season.  

Variation in shoot architecture traits and their relationship to canopy coverage and light interception in soybean (Glycine max)

Mjay Espina, PhD student, and Lucas Roberts, PhD student, were awarded the President's Student Leadership and Service Award which recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of outstanding student leaders at the University of Minnesota.  

Mjay Espina, graduate student, won first place for her poster "Assembly, comparative analysis, and utilization of a single haplotype reference genome for soybean" at the 2024 Soybean Breeders Workshop in St. Louis, MO. 

In this special cross-over episode, CropCast hosts Dave Nicolai and Seth Naeve visit with three talented graduate students who work on Soybean Research Center related projects.  Mary Jane (Mjay) Espina is a PhD student with Aaron Lorenz and Bob Stupar.  Mjay is focused on Iron Deficiency Chlorosis (IDC).  She is primarily interested in identifying the source(s) of resistance to IDC within soybean’s genome.  She hopes that understanding the genetics behind IDC will help her and us learn more about the physiology driving this disorder.  Alina Smolskaya is an MS student who is also advised by Drs. Stupar and Lorenz.  She is working on the genetics of very interesting soybean traits related to leaf shape and seed number per pod.  Leaf shape can play a role in whole plant photosynthesis and therefore productivity, and seeds per pod is an important yield component.  Master’s student Carlos Sanchez also joined the discussion.  Carlos is advised by Seth Naeve and his work has been conducted at a unique drainage and tillage research site near Wells, MN.  Carlos is interested in the environmental drivers behind yield benefits from drainage and has noted that very dry years can reduce or reverse benefits to artificial drainage.  Carlos is also looking at interactive effects of tillage, residue levels, soybean populations, seed treatments, and nitrogen carryover on drainage effects.

Have a listen to this special edition of MN CropCast.  You will appreciate the passion of these young scientists.

University of Minnesota Soybean Research Center – https://soybeanresearchcenter.umn.edu/

Stupar Lab webpage. – https://stuparlab.cfans.umn.edu/

Soybean Extension webpage – www.soybeans.umn.edu