For the past two years, each time I have pulled out the roots of peas, beans or clover, I have checked the roots for nodules. These small bumps or nodules on the legume roots are a good thing. The nodules are formed by Rhizobium bacteria. They have a symbiotic relationship with legumes. The pea or bean plant provides sugars and other nutrients to the bacteria and the bacteria pull nitrogen from the air spaces in the soil and make it available to the plants in a form they can use. So far I have seen no sign of nodules so I am going to introduce some bacteria into the soil by inoculating my pea and bean seeds. No, I won’t stick it in with a needle. Rather I will wet the seeds and add a sprinkle of the inoculant powder before planting. The bacteria will help the plant grow better as it will have a ready supply of nitrogen. When it is time to harvest the finished plants, I will leave the roots in the soil so, as they decay, the bacteria are released into the soil. These bacteria will then naturally infect any pea or bean plants which are grown in subsequent years. Over the long term, these bacteria will help reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizers. This is why pea and bean crops have been used for centuries to help maintain the fertility of the soil. Each type of legume can have its own specific bacteria. You can obtain a Garden Combination of inoculants which will infect peas, beans and vetches. West Coast seeds have a packet for $5.95 which will treat 5 lbs of seeds. As this is more peas and beans than most of us will grow in a year, it would be a good thing to share amongst a few people.

Cutworms are definitely a bad thing. While preparing a seed bed last week I dug up two big fat ones. They are the caterpillar stage of a moth. They can be up to 4cm long (the ones I found were about 3cm), about the thickness of your little finger with a fleshy body and are a gray to green colour. When disturbed they curl up. They tend to emerge from the soil at night and can eat a ring around a plant stem destroying the plant. They will also climb stems to eat leaves and tomatoes. You can locate them by forking lightly around the base of a damaged plant. To protect tomato plants, etc, tin cans, milk cartons or tarpaper collars placed around the plant will generally keep them away. Although some people recommend freezing them or dropping them in a soapy solution to kill them, I prefer two largish stones. It is quick and quite satisfying if they have destroyed the plants you have been carefully nurturing for weeks. Removing crop residue in the fall, turning over the soil and keeping the ground weed free in the winter months will reduce their incidence in the following year. Or get chickens. They love cutworms.