Treating Beans with Inoculants

Do any of you treat your beans and legumes with an inoculant before planting?

Is doing so worth the effort? Most catalogs say to treat the seed before planting

BB

I beleive that most soils already have nitrogen fixing bacteria especially those that have already grown a specific legume.I had read that special strains are needed for each type of legume.A culture intended for red clover will have no effect on sweet clover and the soybean inoculant will be useless on garden beans.I have planted beans and peas here for 32 years and have never used a inoculant and have had satisfactory production.To be on the safe side,you may want to apply the inoculant to your seeds if you have not grown that particular legume before.I think once it is introduced to the soil it remains for many years.

I have tried innoculants a couple of times, with no discernible results and conclude that for me it is not worth the effort.

Thanks Guys:

I used it the first year I was here and actually had a better crop when I didn't use it last year.

BB

Save your money, BB. I never saw much difference when using or not using an inoculant, and that was in the days when you could get them that were made specifically for a certain crop. (Now-a-days it seems they have "multiple crop" mixtures, covering both bush beans and peas, etc. What that means is they put two different strains of bacterial inoculants in the same pouch; the thing is if you are only growing beans, and not peas, your beans are only getting a mild dose and the "pea" inoculant that is in the pouch is simply going to waste, which interprets to you throwing your money away.)

If your soil is of good tilth, allowing air within, and you have good compost or the like for the rhizobia and other bacteria to feed on, and the ground temperature is above 50º your bean plants should be able to receive plenty of nitrogen without inoculants.

Shoe

Bronx,
In my experience, innoculents are not necessary for beans or any other legumes. In fact, not only do the seeds usually quite well, but as soon as they are tall enough to be called 'plants', they begin to "fix" nitrogen themselves.
And that is pretty much what an innoculant is.
With that in mind, at the end of the growing season for my bean plants, I do not just pull the old plants out of the dirt by their roots. I cut the old plants off at soil level, leaving the roots in place, since the roots are a natural innoculent for the next item you plant there.

Ditto here. I don't use it anymore.