Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | Nodulation and nitrogen fixation is very sensitive to the amount of residual nitrogen present in the soil. As little as 20 to 30 lbs of nitrogen can completely suppress nodule formation. What was the nitrogen fertility of the soil before you planted? Is there some reason that excess nitrogen remains from the previous crop? Did the dry weather and maybe a failed corn crop last year leave behind some nitrogen? You say these fields never had beans before. Were they grass fallow or corn on corn. Either would explain the high residual nitrogen. Soybeans are excellent nitrogen scavagers, they will remain unnodulated until they have depleted the nitrogen then proceed to nodulate quite nicely. There is nothing wrong with applying nitrogen fertilizer and may actually be cost effective at high bean prices. It is just a cost benefit calculation. If applied nitrogen is cheaper than the slight yield reduction due to the energy cost to the bean plants to fix nitrogen it might make sense. In prior years the price of the extra beans usually didn't offset the cost of the nitrogen fertilizer but things change. |
Soy Beans Not Nodulating
