Everybody wins with soybean nodulation, especially farmers who learn how to manage this natural process.
The symbiotic relationship between bacteria, nodules and the legumes is complex, and it all hinges on how the bacteria and the crop communicate with each other.
Rhizobium bacteria help form the nodules that convert nitrogen in the air to ammonium. The plant wins by getting a source of nitrogen that it can easily use, while the bacteria get carbohydrates, minerals and a protected environment as their share of the bargain.
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This means that there is a cost to the crop, but the cost is less than the benefit.
In fact, if the soybean plant has enough available nitrogen, it will delay nodulation. It may even stop it completely by not sending a signal to the rhizobia to start invading the root.
Conversely, if the rhizobia population is not there, no nodulation occurs even though the plant has sent signals.
Soon in Canada, we’ll have an inoculant that helps the bacteria and the plant communicate. Optimize mimics the plants signals to cue the bacteria to start making nodules. Research trials are being done to register Optimize in Canada.
Optimize is widely used in the United States 60 per cent of EMD’s American sales are made up of this signalling inoculant. Although, it’s not registered in Canada yet, some Canadian farmers are bringing in Optimize to use on their own farms.
It’ll be (legally) available by 2010, at the earliest, says Chris Meier, sales representative for EMD in Ontario.
