Edible Bean School: Giving beans more credit for fixing nitrogen
Edible beans are usually viewed as one of the weaker performers among legume crops when it comes to fixing nitrogen, but new research shows they likely deserve more credit than they've been given.
"We've really regarded them as non-legumes and standard practice in most areas has been to fertilize to their full nitrogen requirements," notes Kristen MacMillan, research agronomist with the University of Manitoba, in this Edible Bean School focusing on her research looking at how beans respond to different N rates and new inoculant products.
In the first study, MacMillan compared N fertilizer rates from zero to 140 pounds per acre in pinto and navy beans over three years.
"We only found a yield response to the high rate of nitrogen — 140 pounds. And when we applied the economics to that there was actually no difference. There was no response economically to nitrogen fertilizer, which was really surprising because here we've been treating dry beans as a non-legume," she explains.
So where are the plants that received no nitrogen fertilizer getting the N to produce a statistically similar yield to those that received a regular rate??
#farming #agriculture #ediblebeans #drybeans #agronomy #fertilizer
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