Spray before or after is just fine or rather…. Can work. Due to all the “hard to kill weeds” I almost always spray a week in advance with adding 2,4-d to smoke those weeds.
My protocol is simple but the order could be shuffled. There’s a reason I do it the way I do… I fertilize as Early as possible. So it has time to break down. Maybe it’s towards end of winter. Or maybe I did it the year before with my corn fertilization & bumped the rates up a lot so it would be there for beans. All but Nitrogen- putting it down is $ in the bank….
I always have lime applied - usually ag lime or add pelletized same time I fertilize.
I spray gly 2,4-d & I’ll add a pre-emergent cocktail like zidua pro, fierce xlt or a # of really good pre blends u can get. Plant my beans usually about a week later…. Ideal would be: spray, have it rain, dry up and plant.
If u add the pre-emergents.., I get by with one more spray & sometimes I’ll add another pre (like s-metolachlor) if there’s a good bit of growing window left. By the time I might want to overseed into beans- I personally have no issue with pre-emergents being in soil. Iowa weather, heat & rains. Never been an issue for me. That protocol will yield great results. U can run a million variations of this method - just understand which herbicides u can’t use at planting or after & consider timeframes on fertilizers breaking down. It’s never too late to add fertilizers as it starts breaking down, building your soil & u will have a plant that utilizes it. Soil sample & get that fertility built up asap.
