Population densities of clover rhizobia in Texas pastures and response to liming

Abstract

Clovers are widely used forage legumes on acidic soils in Texas and need inoculation with appropriate rhizobia when first introduced. Acidic soils are not conducive to survival of clover rhizobia. A survey of pastures was undertaken to determine the number of rhizobia present. The effect of liming acidic soils on the survival of clover rhizobia was also evaluated in the laboratory. The number of clover rhizobia was more than 100 cells g-1 soil in 70% of the pastures surveyed but populations within pastures varied by more than two orders of magnitude. The number of years of clover production beyond 1 year did not affect the rhizobial population density. The soil pH of twelve samples was below 5.0 and six samples had populations of rhizobial lower than 100 g-1 soil. Eleven out of sixteen samples from fields that had grown clover and had pH values above 6.0 had populations exceeding 1000 g-1 soil and only three samples had populations lower than 100 g-1 soil. Incubating indigenous or inoculated rhizobia in well-mixed soils having pH values of 5.1 or below resulted in populations declining to below 10 g-1 soil in 6 weeks. Mixing of soils with pH values of up to 5.4 induced reduction of rhizobial numbers, possibly by destroying microsites. Liming of soils to increase pH values above 5.5 improved survival of native or inoculated rhizobia in most cases.