How to Handle Inoculant: Rhizobia, Azos, and Mycorrhizae

0:09 Speaking of throwing a little bit of that in, do we often get the question: do we pre-inoculate everything that we have in our mixes? So how do we handle inoculant?

0:21 Yeah, that's always a good question. We do pre-inoculate some things. Of the things we're hesitant to do that on, a lot of that depends on number one what it is, and number two how long it's going to be before you plan. So there's quite a spectrum of how viable inoculants are.

0:39 All the way from lucern clovers and alfalfa that we inoculate, that inoculant it's encapsulated in clay. That stuff's good for 18 months on the seed, that's what the label says. Very long lasting, so we are pre-coating that and it's not really a coating, it's just a dry powder but it's clay based and so that stuff lasts for a long, long time.

1:02 The other end of that extreme is the pea lentil veg bacteria. It is very wimpy. It does not last very long and so.

1:11 We're more hesitant to put that on the seed if you're telling us it's going to be very long before you get it in the ground. We do have some products that have some extenders in it that will extend the life of that lentil veg bacteria and so we can stretch that out a little bit longer.

1:29 The cow pea type is a little more hardy than the pea lentil veg and then the soybean rhizobia are very hardy. They'll last for several weeks on the seed.

1:40 So it kind of depends again on what you're doing, how long it's going to be. If it's the cool part of the year, they'll last much longer than if it's the hot part of the year. And so we'll try to work with the customer and find out if we know that it's going to be several weeks before they plant, we'll really encourage them to not mix it in, but to ship it on the side. And then sometimes what I'll do, you know, to kind of play both sides of it a little bit, we'll mix some in.

2:08 Because the inoculants that have the extenders in them also cost more, and so I'll maybe mix in a partial rate of that and then send some of the cheaper stuff still sealed up in the bag along with the seed and have the customer put that on as they're going into the drill. And so there's some that's mixed in and there's some that's not, so you kind of get the best of both worlds there a little bit.

2:30 So that kind of covers the rhizobia. Dale, why don't you talk a little bit about.

2:33 The biaso and the mycorrhizae because they're a little bit different products and maybe even the hypergirl compost extract too. Sure, the biaso is a blend of the zodobacter and azospirillum, which are free-living nitrogen fixers. They can fix nitrogen on the roots of sorghum, corn, millets, basically just about any plant that has root exudates, which I believe all of them, just about all.

3:04 Yeah, can feed azo spiroulem and zodobacter, but it really thrives on warm season grasses because those are really high root exudate producing organisms or plants that can nourish these organisms.

3:24 They don't fix a lot of nitrogen, but in a grass legume mix where you're not putting nitrogen fertilizer out there, every little additional bit, something I've really seen some good results from.

4:19 Ground on fairly timely manner. The mycorrhizal fungi on the other hand, those spores, they have a hard capsule on them. They are very persistent, they can last a couple years on the seed with basically no loss of viability. And then they'll lose about 10% viability every year after that. The first mycorrhizal fungi I ever inoculated with was five-year-old product and it worked fantastic.

4:53 I mean if it hadn't worked I wouldn't be pitching it now today. That's what started my whole journey is someone gave me some stuff for free because it was expired. And anybody that knows me knows I'm one of the biggest cheapskates on the planet, and that is true. Free speaks to me.

5:17 Say I'll try it if it's free. I know a lot about mycorrhizal fungi, but I didn't want to pay for it and I'm sure glad I got that material.

5:29 Because it was very impressive, boom results within 30, 60 days. There was just a noticeable difference. So mycorrhizal fungi is very, very durable. Unlike rhizobium—you know Keith was talking about—temperature, ultraviolet light kills rhizobium. Temperatures over about a hundred and ten, hundred and twenty degrees kill rhizobium. And so they're pretty fragile. Mycorrhizal fungi, on the other hand.

6:03 Those spores can take up to 140 degrees. They can take direct sunlight. They can even take fertilizer contact. You can mix it with fertilizer, which is another weird thing. You can actually mix it with fungicide and it won't kill those spores because it doesn't penetrate that shell. Not advisable, but they can handle it.

6:27 The mycorrhizal fungi you can spread it on the soil surface. They can sit there in the sun for a year, and you catch a rain, work it in the ground, it's still good. So mycorrhizal fungi, they're tough enough product.