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Response of Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to Inoculation with Mixtures of Effective and Ineffective Rhizobia¹

ABSTRACT

Ineffective rhizobia have often accounted for poor growth and low yields of certain leguminous plants despite the presence of effective rhizobia in the rhizosphere. The purpose of this study was to determine the plant growth response of beans to effective and ineffective rhizobia applied at different time intervals. Precedence in the addition of the different inocula and time of harvest were also employed as major variables.

Beans receiving both effective and ineffective rhizobia simultaneously made as good growth and fixed as much nitrogen as did those which received only effective strains at planting or 21 days later. Plant response to the inoculation treatments was not different at the 35, 45, and 68-day harvests.

Plants bearing ineffective nodules and nodule-free plants of the same age were equally susceptible to nodulation by effective rhizobia added at the 21-day period. Ineffective rhizobia added to 21-day old plants bearing effective nodules had no adverse effect on growth or on nitrogen content of these plants.

The amount of nitrogen in the bean nodules examined was related to the kind of inoculum applied. Effective nodules contained 6–8% nitrogen, ineffective ones averaged 3–4% nitrogen and those from plants treated with mixed inocula showed a range of 5–8% nitrogen.

¹ Contribution from the Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 6. Published with the approval of the Director, Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. Presented before Division III Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 18, 1953, Dallas, Tex.

² Director of Research, Nitragin Company, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Professor of Bacteriology, and Professor of Soils, respectively.

Received for publication November 27, 1953.