2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[Zeedman]

I had to use inoculant to introduce that bacteria that sets nitrogen to my soil. Now those nodules are on the roots when I pull the plants up. From what I've read not all nitrogen fixing bacteria are the same. Some fix more nitrogen than others. Not sure what strains you have.

For about 10 years, I used inoculant on all of my legumes - the proper type for each. Some of those were hard to find (such as garbanzo) and fairly expensive; so I conducted an experiment to see how effective they really were. I planted 2 rows (inoculated vs, un-inoculated) of several species for comparison. The intent was to compare the dry seed weights, and to inspect for nodule formation.

The experiment was only partially successful. The garbanzos were destroyed by a combination of mice & bad weather... but there was no visible difference in apparent vigor or nodule formation. For peas, beans, runner beans, and limas, there were no significant differences between treated & untreated. Soybeans were heavily nodulated & bore the same whether treated or not. Only for cowpeas was there a significant difference; the treated row was much more vigorous. Nodule formation in the treated row was extremely heavy. Even the plants at the end of the untreated row (3' away) were noticeably more vigorous, so the bacteria apparently traveled a few feet.

My conclusion is that the bacteria for cowpeas may not be able to survive my winters, so in my location, annual inoculation of cowpeas & yardlongs is beneficial. The bacteria for beans, peas, and soybeans apparently persists in the soil from year to year, and mechanical tillage spreads it throughout the gardens...

OR... the bacteria may be over-wintering on clover, and may be more efficient at cross-species colonization than conventional knowledge would have us believe.

 

[Zeedman]

also remember that the microbe nitrogen fixing traits have been somewhat bred out of many beans so that they're not as heavily fixing nitrogen.

According to this reference and many others, nitrogen fixation in beans is lower than most legumes - in many cases, less than half. Sad to say, while their nutritional content is undeniable, beans are probably the worst legume to use for improving soil fertility. I seldom see nodules on my beans, and then only a few.

Oddly enough, the beans in the 2019 rural garden were more heavily nodulated than usual - after 2 years of that plot being fallow. That seems to suggest that either the Rhizobium and/or Bradyrhizobium bacteria for beans can remain dormant for several years in the soil (without hosts), or that they may be surviving & multiplying on native clover, as well as on the legumes they are allegedly adapted to.

 

[flowerbug]

Just catching up on this topic... my computer dumped my original comments before I could finish, and I'm just now getting around to re-creating them. I'll break it up into smaller posts, so if it crashes again, I won't lose as much.

autosave seems to do a reasonably good job for me as i often come back to some threads and find parts of what i've been replying to at the bottom waiting for me to finish it or delete it.

i'm not sure what the interval for that might be and wasn't able to find that out by a quick scan of the help or preferences and i can't figure out how to find the version these forums use but a quick search came up with:

"#6 Note the time has changed (v 2.2) to every three seconds once you've stopped typing. Last edited: Jul 25, 2020."

and i've just verified that is true.

. Recent research has shown starter N to be ineffective in increasing yield."

aye.

 

[VegBaby]

Just wanted to post a picture of a beautiful dragonfly resting on one of my Jacob's Cattle Gold bush bean 😍 I've never see one up close before.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Down here dragonflies are called mosquito hawks as mosquitoes are a favorite food. But they also eat other garden pests, they are good to have around.

 

[flowerbug]

aside from trampling and being chewed off on top some of the beans standing are just rotting at the base of the stem this season. it has happened before here or there but not as many plants as this year. still i'll get some kind of crop. things are blooming and the weather is cool enough some pods will take.

 

[heirloomgal]

aside from trampling and being chewed off on top some of the beans standing are just rotting at the base of the stem this season. it has happened before here or there but not as many plants as this year. still i'll get some kind of crop. things are blooming and the weather is cool enough some pods will take.

Are you getting lots of rain?

 

[heirloomgal]

The learning curve of everything. So, we had mega rain for awhile and some cold too, and a few bean plants suffered/croaked for it. That startled me a bit since the only problem I've ever seen in beans was from overcrowding them when planting. After the rain I swung hard in the opposite direction of water worry, and I think I let them dry out a bit too much now because I saw a few drooping ears yesterday. (Mind you, we are having a heat wave again.) I'm wondering what people's thoughts are with watering schedules for beans? I am feeling unsure of myself now, as I've always been quite generous with water for my beans. I've watered 2 days in a row now as the soil seems dry, but I'd not like to stress any plants either. I'd love to hear how people gauge need and frequency for water in their plants.

I should mention maybe that garden culture here has pretty much been the tradition of watering everyday, in the early morning or evening. I've never done that much, but probably close.

 

[Zeedman]

aside from trampling and being chewed off on top some of the beans standing are just rotting at the base of the stem this season. it has happened before here or there but not as many plants as this year. still i'll get some kind of crop. things are blooming and the weather is cool enough some pods will take.

I'm afraid I am in the same boat (pun intended). The gardens at home are OK, but the rural garden looks really sad. Wilting is widespread, even on the high end. Numerous beans, tomatoes, cowpeas, and peppers that were previously healthy are wilting & dying due to waterlogged soil. I've never seen such widespread wilting, across so many species. It doesn't appear that the garden will be able to dry out either, another 2+ inches predicted starting Wednesday.

 

[Artorius]

Fusariosis or verticillosis also appeared in my garden. It seems to me that I managed to contain the disease on a few plants, but lost a few. Unfortunately, network beans such as Fox Family Greasy and Mother Earth were also among them. Hopefully I can harvest enough seeds from these surviving plants. So far, I have not completely lost any of the variety.
The weather is cruel. Heat above 30 C interrupted by storms and heavy rains. It's like living in a tropical country.
Elsa, such a tiny, individual, snow cloud, please.