General effectiveness of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viceae populations from different agricultural locations

Abstract

Arable soils from ten agricultural locations in Bohemia and Moravia were tested to define their “whole-soil” indigenous Rhizobium populations in terms of nodulation, average effectiveness, and ability to meet N requirements of Pisum sativum L. The effectiveness of indigenous populations and a standard strain was evaluated by the acetylenereducing activities, nodule and plant dry mass accumulation, and by plant biomass N content (yield) in the plants cultivated under the controlled growth conditions. Most of the soils had sufficient native rhizobia for successful nodulation and to mee the yield potential of symbiotic peas. In general, specific C 2H 2-reducing activity of nodule tissue was inversely related to the nodule dry mass accumulation. With the exception of three soils, the plant dry biomass accumulation and plant biomass N content were equal or slightly better in the plants nodulated by the soil populations than in the control ones.