Due to the cold, wet spring, some Manitoba growers are choosing not to seed soybeans.
Many of these growers are in a dilemma because they already bought seed and inoculant.
While the seed can be stored, inoculant is a different story. It contains living bacteria, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, which is responsible for creating the nodule and producing nitrogen for the soybean plant through the growing season.
The viability of these bacteria declines over time.
Advice for growers
- Talk to suppliers about redistributing the inoculant to another grower.
- Check the expiration date. Some products have a two-year shelf life.
- It is not advised to store one-year shelf life product and apply it the following year at increased rates. That would contradict label directions and the likelihood of survival is not known.
- Applying the inoculant with a cereal crop to populate the soil with bacteria for next year’s soybean crop is unproven.
Soybeans seeded the next year would still need to be inoculated, but they may be able to take advantage of a limited background level of soybean inoculant.
