Response of Pulses to Seed or Soil Application of Rhizobial Inoculants

In micro-plot experiments growth, nodulation and seed yields of pea, yellow lupine and soybean grown in a soil colonized by high populations of pea and lupine rhizobia and low population of soybean rhizobia as influenced by seed or soil application of rhizobial inoculants were studied. The studied inoculation method had no significant effects on root nodule numbers, plant growth at the flowering stage and on seed yields of pea and yellow lupine in comparison to uninoculated control treatments. In the case of soybean seed and soil inoculation with soybean rhizobia ( Bradyrhizobium japonicum ) resulted in a significant increase of nodulation intensity, fresh and dry mass of shoots at the flowering stage as well as pod numbers and soybean seed yields at harvest. Soybean grown on plots in which soil was inoculated with the symbiotic bacteria gave seed yield by about 57 % higher as compared to that of soybean grown from seed inoculated with the rhizobia and by 169 % higher than when this crop was grown on the control (uninoculated) plots.