Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Bean inoculant

So, what's the story with bean inoculant? I'm planning on planting some pole beans this spring and am reading that you'll have better results (more? bigger?) if you use an inoculate for rhizobial bacteria.

What's your experience with this? Is it worth the trouble and what happens if you don't use it?

5 comments:

Carol Michel said...

I am using an inoculant this year for the first time for both peas and beans. I'm hoping it will improve the yield I get. But my biggest problem with peas and beans in the past has been with rabbits eating them

El said...

I use it, but I can't really say it improves yields a ton as I have always had good luck with peas and beans. What it DOES do is help fix the free nitrogen in the soil, so if it doesn't immediately help the peas and beans, it should help the next crop. I get huge crops of legumes, as I am a bit of a pig when it comes to them, so...I will do what I can, you know?

Crunchy Chicken said...

Hmmm. That's interesting. Well, maybe I'll give it a try. Or, if I'm feeling experimental, I'll inoculate the beans in one square versus another and see if I notice a difference, if that's even possible (there are so many variables).

Anonymous said...

I, too, am going to use bean inoculant for the first time in my vegetable garden when I plant pole and bush beans. My former experience with inoculants was in Missouri when I was a kid. We used inoculants when planting soybeans. I guess it worked. I'm hopeful about my garden crop this spring.

Anonymous said...

bean inoculant simply improves the chances your bean seeds will actually sprout...it has nothing to do with yields, bean size, etc.