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August 31, 2009 · 2 Comments

How Some Plants Add Nitrogen to Soil

How to

Back in the day, I worked for a large agricultural supply cooperative in Minnesota, which sold seed to farmers. To say that the co-op’s seed guys were fixated on nitrogen fixation would be an understatement.

nitrogen on bean root

The little warty things are where the nitrogen is being created.

Nitrogen fixing is the process by which certain legumes take nitrogen from the air (N2) and, with the help of bacteria, transform it to nitrogen plants can use (NH3). Farmers love this beneficial habit because they can plant corn (a huge nitrogen user) after soybeans (a nitrogen fixer) and not have to add as much fertilizer. The co-op’s seed guys had a special soybean seed that was a nitrogen fixing machine — but that’s another story.

Recently, a fellow gardener brought up the issue of whether green beans in Minnesota were in the ground long enough to fix nitrogen. I have always assumed so — but his comment got me wondering. This weekend I pulled up one of my bush bean plants to check and there they were — those warty little nobs on the root of the bean that signal nitrogen fixation. How much nitrogen is fixed depends on the soil, the bean, and a number of other factors that are beyond my pay grade. But it is a good idea to rotate beans into garden beds in which the soil may have been depleted by heavy nitrogen using plants, such as tomatoes. It’s also a good idea to simply cut the beat plant down to soil level at the end of the season, leaving the warty, nitrogen-rich roots in the soil to decompose.

Nitrogen fixing is one of the reasons many gardeners will plant a cover crop of legumes on new garden beds. The University of Minnesota has a good article about nitrogen fixation and another one on cover crops that you might want to read for additional information.

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Comments

  1. Lisa says

    September 1, 2009 at 7:07 am

    This is great information, especially leaving the roots in the soil. This is another great reason to keep a garden journal so you know where things were planted from year to year and can make the most of natural soil enhancement.
    Thanks!

Trackbacks

  1. Two New Books for Vegetable Gardeners - Minnesota State Horticultural Society says:
    January 14, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    […] of how they work, and how gardeners can use them in their own garden. For instance, green beans are nitrogen fixers—meaning the have the ability to take nitrogen from the air and transform it into a form plants […]

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