The effect of fresh straw on the growth of certain legumes

1. In pot experiments with Glycine hispida and Vicia faba L., fresh chaff incorporated with the soil caused a significant increase in the number of nodules produced on inoculated plants, this increase being augmented by the further addition of phosphates.

2. Fresh chaff, added at the time of sowing and inoculation, had more effect than chaff which was allowed to decompose in the soil for a month.

3. Fresh chaff increases the multiplication of the nodule organism in sterilised soil.

4. In soy beans without nodules, the chaff depressed the growth of the tops, but this depression did not occur either with soy or broad beans where nodules were present.

5. In a field experiment made at Rothamsted, chaff, freshly ploughed in, increased the growth of broad beans and also of wheat sown the next season on the same ground. RESP-636