One of the greatest challenges producers and researchers alike have had to address is protecting the yield potential of the soybean crop. Soybeans abort a large percentage of their blossoms, giving up yield. Why does this happen and how can that loss be reduced? Perhaps what needs to be addressed is the overall health of the plant. Plant health is a wholesome concept. Who could be opposed to such an idea? Perhaps the more important questions are, “What is plant health and who can define what is?”

Without a doubt, most people would agree that a healthy plant is likely to be more productive. What we don’t understand is, what plant health is! What affects the health of a biological organism? Certainly the absence of infectious disease is a component in this definition. However, infectious disease is not the only cause of yield loss. Nutritional disorders and deficient macro- and micronutrients are significant causes of plant stress that can limit productivity as well. Environmental factors such as timeliness of rainfall and the temperatures range relative to the optimum for plant growth can also effect production. On a smaller scale, each of the factors above can influence physiological processes that relate to yield. Most of us don’t want to look inside the molecular processes of the plant, but that is really where yield is being built. What if something as simple as high temperature stress at the wrong stage of crop development shut down a physiological process that diverted energy to be stored in seed, limiting yield? How can these stresses that limit yield be managed?