Inoculation for Beans and Peas 



A. B. ROSS 



Practical Means of Introducing Root Bacteria that Catch Nitrogen from the Air. Bettering the Soil for Later Different Crops 



NINE times out of ten it's just lack of 

 nitrogen when your lima beans fail to 

 make good; and if your pea vines have 

 an unhealthy color and an "off" yield, 

 or if your string beans are stunted and diseased, 

 you can figure that they are so because they lack 

 the one thing the} 7 must have above all others — 

 nitrogen. 



The joke of it is that you can have nitrogen in 

 unlimited quantities without money and without 

 price. It is literally as " free as air," because you 

 can get it from the air if you will. 



If you are not acquainted with the nitrogen- 

 gathering bacteria it might be a good idea to 

 introduce yourself. Dig up a couple of clover 

 plants. Pick one that is vigorous, dark green, 

 healthy, and from some near-by spot pick one 

 that is a typical "scrub." Dig them carefully, 

 for the bacteria are easily broken from the roots. 

 When you get the plants out shake the earth from 

 the roots and look them over. You will find the 

 vigorous plant covered with little finger-like 

 warts and the "scrub" will have few or none. 



The vigor of the plant depends absolutely on 

 these friendly colonies of bacteria, which fasten 

 on the roots of the plant, start their nitrogen 

 making factories, reducing the nitrogen of the air 

 to digestible plant food. 



Nitrogen and Vigor 



/"\F ALL the elements of plant food, nitrogen 

 ^-' is the most important; with a scarcity of 

 nitrogen the vigor of the plant, root and branch, 

 is limited. With nitrogen its foraging power is 

 greatly increased. It hunts in wider areas for 

 its supplies of potash and phosphoric acid. A 

 deep, rich green color shows a plant well fed with 

 nitrogen. 



All plants can and do use nitrogen from man- 

 ures, humus in its various forms, and from the 

 nitrogen carriers of commercial fertilizer. But 

 to give nitrogen in any of these forms to peas, 

 beans, or limas is like "carrying coals to New- 

 castle." 



While the peas and beans can and do use nitro- 

 gen from manures and humus it is also true that 

 if the bacteria are on their roots in goodly quanti- 

 ties they leave more nitrogen in the ground when 

 they have finished than was in the ground when 

 they started. 



Perhaps it would be better to put it in this 

 way: manure and humus are excellent for beans 

 and peas; but manure plus inoculation is infinitely 

 better. Peas and beans can use nitrogen from 

 commercial fertilizer, but they will do very much 

 better if they are not given any nitrogen from 

 these sources and are inoculated so as to carry the 

 bacteria. 



Habits of the Bacteria 



THE bacteria fasten on the roots of the peas 

 *■ and beans, draw on the host plants for their 

 food and on the air for their nitrogen, which they 

 store in large quantities. Part of this stored 

 nitrogen the plant uses at once; the rest of it be- 

 comes available when the bacteria die and decay. 

 In the cool weather of the spring the bacteria 



first show right under the crown of the plants, 

 a finger-like wart on peas and a small round 

 ball on the beans. Under favorable conditions 

 the crowns are full of them. From the crowns 

 they spread out on the lateral roots near the 

 surface. So long as the ground is moist and the 

 weather is cool you will find the bacteria thickest 

 near the surface. 



But the bacteria are sensitive to heat; and, as 

 the ground warms and dries, these upper bacteria 

 die and decay, and the later bacteria are found 

 deeper and deeper, always in moist, cool earth. 



The rains work the decayed nitrogen into lower 

 levels, and the roots go after it. In this riotous 

 feast on nitrogen the plant roots go deeper and 

 deeper as the supply goes down. And when the 

 hot, dry weather of summer comes, the root sys- 

 tem has been so deeply set that the plants can 

 resist drought to a very unusual degree. Also 

 the plants being in prime vigor and constantly 

 fed can resist diseases which make short work of 

 the unhealthy "scrubs." 



When the peas and beans are through with their 

 crop the whole area occupied by their roots will 

 be impregnated with the excess nitrogen, and 

 the root system will become humus for the crops 

 which follow. The legumes will have performed 

 the labor for which Nature designed them, for 

 their function is to restore fertility of which the 

 non-legumes rob the soil. 



How to Inoculate Seed 



A 6-oz. bottle of pure culture is enough to 

 ''■*• inoculate 4 quarts of peas or limas, or 6 

 quarts of string beans. If you have more seed 

 to be treated add cold water in proportion re- 

 quired. 



For a moderate amount of seed a very good 

 way is to use two clean pans and a colander. 

 Put the seed in the colander, pour the liquid over 

 the seed, catching the drippings in one of the 

 pans. Put the second lot of seed in the colander, 

 set it in the other pan and pour the liquid from 

 pan No. 1 over it, etc. Stir the seed in the colan- 

 der to make sure that all is moistened. The solu- 

 tion is perfetcly harmless. Do not try to save 

 any of the liquid for future use. It spoils quickly 

 after the bottle is open. 



Whatever liquid you have left over after treat- 

 ing your seeds should be mixed with earth and 

 sprinkled in the drills and hills with the seed to 

 make assurance doubly sure. 



The work of inoculation should be done in the 

 shade and the seed sown as soon as possible 

 after being moistened. If you cannot sow right 

 away, put the seed away in a dark, cool, place 

 and sow as soon as you can; for best results 

 come with quick sowing after treatment. 



The inoculation of lima beans requires more 

 care, but it pays great dividends. 



If you soak the limas in the solution the skins 

 will break, which will not do at all. If you are 

 going to sow them right away moisten them with 

 the solution and be sure to put a pinch of the 

 solution-moistened earth into the drills or hills 

 with the beans. This will make inoculation 



in the author's garden: Behind 1 



house vigorous pole limas, inoculated; in centre bush limas not treated, and a flat failure 



116 



These warts on the roots of beans, etc. , are veritablernoney-bags. 

 Here live the bacteria that catch nitrogen 



practically sure. And with limas the presence 

 of the bacteria makes an enormous difference, 

 frequently the difference between a howling suc- 

 cess and a dismal failure. 



In the east there has been a good deal of 

 trouble in getting a stand of limas. The wire 

 worms and other underground pests have a 

 nasty habit of destroying the first leaves before 

 they get through the ground; so that it is not 

 uncommon for perfectly good seed to give a very 

 poor stand. 



To get ahead of these pests a very good way is 

 to sprout the limas before planting. Take some 

 earth from the garden, bake it thoroughly in the 

 oven for two hours. After it is entirely cooled 

 put earth and limas in successive layers in a box 

 first treating the seed with the inoculating ma- 

 terial. You can lay the limas fairly thick in 

 their layer, and the layers of earth need not be 

 thick at all. After you have the box loaded, 

 pour the rest of the inoculating material over 

 it, and finish the moistening process with cold 

 water. 



Put the box in a warm place — under a stove 

 or radiator, or in a south window — and see that 

 the ground is kept moist until the seed are well 

 sprouted. You can let the seeds go until they 

 are forming roots. Plant the sprouted seed in 

 the hills or drills, with a pinch of the earth, 

 cover an inch deep, and, if the ground and 

 weather are warm, the plants will begin to come 

 through within forty-eight hours, before the bugs 

 have time to get busy on them. Incidentally, 

 also, you will have gained a lot of time in the 

 bearing season of the limas. 



These cultures are prepared in commercial 

 form and may be purchased at a very small cost 

 from the manufacturers — naming the crop for 

 which the bacteria are desired and remember the 

 method applies to the legume family only not to 

 crops in general. 



Free samples may also be had from the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture (Division of Bacter- 

 iology), Washington, by applying two weeks 

 before you want the material, stating also the 

 crop to be grown and the date of planting. 



Each person can have but one culture. So you 

 must decide whether you will apply for culture for 

 string beans or peas or limas. You cannot inocu- 

 late any other garden vegetables than these. 



