Introduction

Identifying the stage of development is essential to proper diagnosis of soybean pest or environmental problems. Although several schemes exist, the most commonly used system divides soybean development into vegetative (V) and reproductive (R) stages.
Vegetative stages
VE: Emergence
VC: Cotyledon
V1: First node
Vn: nth node
Reproductive Stages
R1: Beginning flower
R2: Full flower
R3: Beginning pod
R4: Full pod
R5: Begginning seed
R6: Full seed
R7: Beginning maturity
R8: Full maturity
When attempting to determine a stage, be sure to observe a number of plants because variation will occur within a field. A stage occurs for the field or sample when 50% of the observed plants are at the stage in question.