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northeastern Ohio | Scott,
It would depend on temperature, moisture and soil contact. If you took an inoculated seed and placed it on top of the ground, about 20% of the seed would probably be contacting the ground. If there was some moisture present, I would expect about 5% of the rhizobia to survive. If you are using the ABI sterile peat at the regular rate, you would be applying almost 1 million rhizobia per seed. Since you inoculated at a 2x rate, and I assume that 10% would survive in the example above, you should still have 100,000 per seed.
For good nodulation, you need at least 1000 live rhizobia per seed. So in a "worse case senario", as in the example above, you still have 10 times the minimum number you need. Of course, inoculation is a "numbers" game. The more rhizobia you can get onto that seed, the earlier the nodulation will take place. The earlier you get nodulation, the sooner the nodules will begin nitrogen production. The more days that nitrogen is produced, the more nitrogen that will be available for the soybeans as well as the following crop.
The other advantage in high rhizobia numbers is the fact that the rhizobia that you apply to the seed are competing with native or wild rhizobia (feral). Each strain is going to compete for nodule sites. Feral rhizobia do not produce as much nitrogen as the "domesticated" strains that you are applying. Therefore, every site that you gain is to your advantage.
In your situation, you have done everything that you can to get the advantage. It would be nice to have the slot closed to protect the rhizobia. If you get a nice rain shower in the next couple days, it will definately help. If you have irrigation, turn it on. | |
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Soybean inoculant and treating?
