>We grow several acres of Fava beans, they are a favorite of mine with potato >in a stew. >Dare I say we don't use innoculant, just the preps, so I guess we must have >pre-existing -non-conforming soils. May be you should inoculate once or >twice and amp up the use of bc/500 and see what happens...sstorch
The deal with innoculating your beans is that there are many bacteria that can colonize the sites on the bean's roots, but only "one" variety that will give maximum symbiosis. That's why we innoculate: making sure that the bean surface is covered with the appropriate beneficial that will colonize the radical upon emergence. We don't want to take the chance that some other bacteria may move in, not that the bean will not grow, but that the amount of nitrogen we'd like to produce with our cover crop won't happen. We, of course, want to maximize the appropriate return for our money and our labor if we want to remain sustainable. It is said, of course, that after a few rounds of covers with innoculants that subsequent plantings will most likely be appropriately colonized. It is also said that, at the price of commercial innoculant, why take a chance? Or, as Alan York was fond of saying 'If you're going to surf, it's always best to catch a wave.' Why we have legumes in nature without innoculation by the hand of man is probably explained above or, we can ask the question, "Why Horticulture in the first place?" And, yes, get that 500 down! -Allan
