I think the experience among growers down here is that the inoculants work much better in organic gardens and still better in no-till organic gardens.

I have a new area that I have turned over recently. It was part of my lawn, nothing but grass has ever been there. I have on hand 1/4lb. Bluelake Bush and 1/4 pound Strike(r) Bush.
I have put compost,alfalfa slush,and dry molasses over the area.
I want to see for myself if I wasted my money on the innoculant...If I did zeedman..will you send me some diff. seeds? hahaha probably not allowed to bet here huh?lol
David

...can be found at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Physiology Online Chapter 12

This forum has been really slow over the winter, so I just got around to checking Albert's link. I found no "serious discussions", just a brief summary of a chapter of a course. Nothing that either supports or refutes the effectiveness of inoculants for leguminous crops.

Now that planting time is approaching for most of the U.S., I am hoping that more GW members will take a greater interest in this experiment.

I may be able to take part in this experiment. I'm planning on planting 3 15' rows of blackeye peas and the same amount of blue lake bush beans. It would be quite easy for me to inoculate only 1 or 2 out of the 3 rows. Blackeye peas grew well in this area last year without fertilization or inoculation, but I did not check for root nodules. Hopefully I can at least give some anecdotal evidence as to the effectiveness of inoculating--might even go so far as to weigh the harvest if there is an obvious difference in yield. My concern right now is finding the proper inoculant for blackeye peas (cowpeas). Most garden centers carry only the "garden combo" inoculant, and it may not be listed for cowpeas.

Jason

zeedman,

It looks like this post got lost and no one really attempted this experiment.

I would like to give it a try next season. I plan on growing Pole beans next year for the first time in ground that has never been under vegetable cultivation(my backyard yard). I will make a note for my next year planting to try out this experiment.

I assume I can get "Legume Inoculant" at my local garden supply centers? Any application advice?

thanks,

Dean

Wondering if anyone ever tried this experiment?

pm2

I bought inoculant. However, since I've neglected housecleaning in favor of balcony gardening, I can't find the inoculant now. I then figured that I'd wait until spring to plant my sugar snap peas.

I asked the master gardeners at the farmers market, and they said that most commercial seeds come pre-inoculated. Said something about there is a visible pick or white dusty coating.

If inoculated seed has ever been planted in the ground and legumes (preferably the same species, such as beans) are grown every few years, the soil will maintain a reservoir of inoculant and additional treatments won't make much if any difference. The way to tell if you need to add inoculant is to pull a plant in mid summer and see if the roots have pinkish nodules on them. If they do, you are fine. If they don't, then adding inoculant will help.

Still, it never hurts to experiment. Just remember, the inoculant is a living bacteria, so store it in a cool place, and it is best to use any inoculant purchased in the year you get it.

Has anyone tried making their own inoculant by low temp drying of nodules and soil surrounding them to avoid having to buy inoculant every year

I will be testing this year. Several years ago I started a new garden. Beans have only done so/so each year. This year I am trying the inoculant.

Hello, I saw this post and thought I would offer my results at the end of the season.

It was quite interesting...luckily I had ordered a pack of inoculant online, but wanted to pick up another due to the qty of legumes I'll be planting. Have you ever been looked at as though you were from outer space? Exactly my experience when I asked the gentleman from Home Depot, where their seed inoculant was. "Our what?" he exclaimed, "What's it for?" So I proceeded to explain. He looked at me like I was nuts and said, "It sounds like a real sophisticated product and you'll probably have to go to a real nursery to get it."

I was a bit surprised...but hey, what do you want from HD?

Anyway, I am currently having to plant in containers, so I figured I'd test out half of the legumes (both peas and beans and about 40 varieties) and see the difference in growth and production. Obviously, there is no residual inoculant from previous years, in the buckets. All new soil etc. So, when I get to harvest time, or if I notice any difference between the plants during the growing season, I'll post my results. It will be fun to see which do better or if there will be a difference.

Toni

I'm wondering if you did the experiment? Love to know the results!

Called the extension offices around here and got the area's horticulture specialist. He said that it is a good idea for newly dug gardens, and will definitely improve the yields if the nitrogen-fixing bacteria are not present already. If you have planted beans, peas, clover, alfalfa, buckwheat or legumes at any point in the past, within about 10-20 feet, or more if you've tilled, it should already be there, and won't be necessary.

Where would you GET lugume inocculant, particularly for obscure legumes like Beach Pea and false indigo?

Wow... this forum is so inactive I had forgotten this post. I never did get any volunteers for a true "with vs. without" comparison for any legume. And I never came back to post my own results.

I did inoculated vs. inoculated comparisons for common beans, runner beans, garbanzos, mung beans, soybeans, and cowpeas. The object was to grow all rows for dry seed, and weight the seed at season's end for comparison. As I stated, I had used inoculant previously in that garden, except for garbanzos.

The mung beans were wiped out by disease, so no data. The garbanzos bore seed, but the seed was destroyed by late summer rains... a pity, since that was the only inoculant that I had used for the first time. Common beans & runner beans had no observable differences.

The soybeans that were inoculated were half eaten by herbivores (it turned out to be a ground hog), but the remaining half, when compared to an equal ratio of the uninoculated row, showed little difference. Any soybean in my garden, inoculated or not, was heavily nodulated. That bacteria seems to be especially persistent in my climate.

The only real difference was noted in cowpeas, and part of that was due to factors not planned as part of the experiment. The inoculated row of cowpeas was much greener, the pods were noticeably longer, and the dry yield was higher. Furthermore, the two rows were at right angles, and met at the corner... the first two plants in the uninoculated row, closest to the inoculated plants, were much greener than the rest of the row. The opposite end of the uninoculated row was unremarkable, so the edge effect could not account for the healthier plants. I concluded that enough inoculant had been spread in the surrounding soil to influence uninoculated plants within a 4-foot radius.

The other incidental observation came from yardlong beans. I normally start them as transplants, inoculated at the time of planting. Because I was controlling inoculant application for the experiment, I accidentally failed to inoculate them. There were three varieties, and all of them languished - the worst crop I have ever had. Inoculated the next year & subsequent, that poor growth has never been repeated.

It is my conclusion that the bacteria for cowpeas & yardlongs does not persist in my soil; perhaps that strain is unable to survive my Wisconsin winters. Based upon my observations, I recommend annual application of inoculant for cowpeas, in northern climates.

edlincoln, guessing you would find the closest common relative of whatever legume for which you're searching and use that inoculant. Like I said, though, just a guess.

Zeedman, thanks for the info regarding your results. Interesting, and probably useful here in MN.

i wanted to buy a small amount and propagate it, but i had read that they need to be in the presence of roots to be active and reproduce.
thats why you can buy a sealed container and it lasts for months or years.

so, my idea was to get some roots and put them in a blender.
Then add molasses,, water and aerate...

would this work to make them reproduce ?

if so, we could each make a batch and trade here online.
especially for anyone making it from local soil

"

zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin

This
forum has been really slow over the winter, so I just got around to
checking Albert's link. I found no "serious discussions", just a brief
summary of a chapter of a course. Nothing that either supports or
refutes the effectiveness of inoculants for leguminous crops.?"

᠎

᠎

Sorry about the useless link. ｡◕‿◕｡

᠎

"thats why you can buy a sealed container and it lasts for months or years."

Inoculants actually have a rather short shelf life - 15 months at most - and viablilty can be compromised if not stored properly before use. They are afterall living organisms!

If I am growing favas in pots do I still inoculate?

I have used inoculation of fresh soil here are images taken the same day of inoculated and beans planted without it.

These are container plants. I use the beans to fertilize my other plants. The first image is inoculated soil. The second image shows plants that were not grown in inoculated soil.

I use my beans to feed my corn and pumpkins.

Here is an image of the beans and corn at the same distance but the beans and corn are much smaller and don't look as healthy as the first image in the post above.

@wilmabutler8, some of your photos don't appear to have posted.

Yes, I'm still here. :-) It is really a shame that this experiment drew so little interest, since the results may have helped many in the garden community. In retrospect, this is a rather obscure forum... I might have had a greater response had this been posted on the Beans & Legumes Forum.

I stopped using inoculant on my cowpeas & yardlongs a few years ago, when I began starting them in pots. While the plants were healthy & the yield was OK, they were (and are) slow to start. They look especially slow this year, in spite of good weather early in the season; so I will resume inoculating cowpeas in 2022.

BTW, my rural garden was fallow for two years, because of wet soil caused by two consecutive years of record rainfall (!!!). When I gardened there again in 2020, beans & soybeans were fully nodulated & healthy. The bacteria may be able to survive on the roots of clover (which was also heavily nodulated).

While common beans and limas have done well, runner beans have languished the last two years - in both locations. They are apparently more sensitive to less-than-ideal conditions than my other beans. I will begin inoculating those in 2022 as well, to see if it will improve their vigor. Hopefully I remember to post my observations here next year... if not, feel free to give me a nudge by posting here. ;-)