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Effect of Soil Fumigation on N₂–Fixation and Yield of Field Bean When Grown on Fusarium-Infested Soils¹

Nodulation in field beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is poor in root-rot infested soils of the Columbia Basin of central Washington. Studies were initiated to determine if nodulation and N₂–fixation rate were improved after fumigation and reduction in root rot. The effect of fumigation on nodulation and bean yield was studied in the field where N and three strains of Rhizobium phaseoli were applied to field beans grown in a Warden fine sandy loam soil (Xeroilic Camborthids) infested with root rot (Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli). Early nodulation with one strain but not yield, increased significantly with inoculation. Fumigation with 400 kg/ha of chloropicrin significantly increased shoot weight, root weight, and total N uptake throughout the season and decreased the incidence of root rot.

Fumigation increased seed yields by an average of 1,800 kg/ha in 1975 and 900 kg/ha in 1976. In general, N(C₂H₂)–fixation rate was not significantly increased by either inoculation or fumigation. Only after adding a high rate of inoculum to the fumigated plots was the N₂ (C₂H₂)–fixation rate increased at one of four sampling dates. It would appear that the major increase in plant growth and seed yield following fumigation was due to a reduction in root rot rather than from an increase in nodulation or N₂(C₂H₂)–fixation rate. Nitrogen application of 112 kg/ha of N in 1975 and 135 kg/ha of N in 1976 did not increase yields in either fumigated or nonfumigated soils.

Key Words: Root rot • Rhizobium phaseoli • Acetylene reduction

² Professor of soils, assistant professor of agronomy and soils, Washington State Univ., respectively, and research plant pathologist, SEA/AR, Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center. Prosser.

Received for publication August 14, 1980.