Ice cream bean nodulation outside of the tropics

[barath]

A couple of years back I had been wondering whether Ice cream bean is capable of fixing nitrogen outside of the tropics/native regions given that it wouldn't have access to the normal symbiotic bacteria.  To test this out, last year I got some Inga spectabilis seeds from Oscar and inoculated them upon planting with a mix of two standard commercial bean/pea inoculants (both from groworganic.com -- one was a misc N-fixing inoculant and the other a cow pea inoculant).  I planted in good potting soil.

And the result appears to be, yes, they can fix nitrogen when given these sorts of standard inoculants!

Inga spectabilis is not well suited to my climate, so it grows very slowly (unlike Norman's Inga, of which I have two now and grows quite fast). I pulled up one of the seedlings and the nodules are clearly visible.  (The plant was in a windy spot and wasn't doing well, so it was worth pulling up.)

[FlyingFoxFruits]

That's interesting!

Thanks for sharing!

I've never noticed the nodules

Btw, treesnmore has an inga tree worth growing!  I have to pester him to see if I can get him to send me a box of fruit....they looked just like the fruits I had years ago from a TX nursery, but were much sweeter and easier to eat (less cottony)...I planted a bunch of seeds!

[fruitlovers]

I would guess the ingas would nodulate even without the inoculants. But you can experiment with that to find out if it's really necessary? Maybe you just get more and bigger nodules after innoculating? Ingas will nodulate when quite small so you can find out quite easy
FIY once you get an Inga growing that has nodulated you can just use some of the soil around that plant to innoculate other plants. . BTW your plant leaves look nutrient deficient, too yellowish.
Here is a photo of an Inga plant i transplanted with nodules attached:

[barath]

Good idea -- I'll try checking some of the newer Ingas I started that I didn't inoculate to see if they nodulate.  And eventually I should do a side-by-side comparison.

This one plant was one of the less healthy of the bunch (probably due to its location right in the path of cold wind), so I stopped caring for it a couple of months back and that probably worsened its nutrient deficiency.

I wonder if Ingas produce fix more nitrogen when they have the "right" symbiotic bacteria vs. these generic bacteria.  I guess that's a study for some serious botanist...

[fruitlovers]

Barath, about your queries about which ingas do best in cooler climates, you need to look for ingas originationg in southernmost Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. There are plenty of these as there are between 250-300 species, depending on which author you consult. You can see the origin of each species in a book that is a monograph on Ingas by T. Pennington.
As a tangent, it's interesting to note that the inga genus has more species in danger of extinction than almost any other tropical fruit.

[barath]

Barath, about your queries about which ingas do best in cooler climates, you need to look for ingas originationg in southernmost Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. There are plenty of these as there are between 250-300 species, depending on which author you consult. You can see the origin of each species in a book that is a monograph on Ingas by T. Pennington.
As a tangent, it's interesting to note that the inga genus has more species in danger of extinction than almost any other tropical fruit.

Definitely.  I actually received seeds of Inga uruguayensis from a tree in Montevideo a couple of weeks back and I think one may be germinating   I'm looking forward to trying it out to see how it does in Northern California.  (Supposedly it can handle down to -4 C.)  Folks in local CRFG circles also have referred to a cold-tolerant (highland?) species, Inga affinis, but apparently nobody has been able to find seeds for it.

I didn't know that Inga is threatented.  Hopefully folks like the Inga Foundation can help prevent that!  (And, if these trials of cold-hardy Inga go well, perhaps we can use it for reforestation in subtropical areas as well.)

[fruitlovers]

Barath, about your queries about which ingas do best in cooler climates, you need to look for ingas originationg in southernmost Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. There are plenty of these as there are between 250-300 species, depending on which author you consult. You can see the origin of each species in a book that is a monograph on Ingas by T. Pennington.
As a tangent, it's interesting to note that the inga genus has more species in danger of extinction than almost any other tropical fruit.

Definitely.  I actually received seeds of Inga uruguayensis from a tree in Montevideo a couple of weeks back and I think one may be germinating   I'm looking forward to trying it out to see how it does in Northern California.  (Supposedly it can handle down to -4 C.)  Folks in local CRFG circles also have referred to a cold-tolerant (highland?) species, Inga affinis, but apparently nobody has been able to find seeds for it.

I didn't know that Inga is threatented.  Hopefully folks like the Inga Foundation can help prevent that!  (And, if these trials of cold-hardy Inga go well, perhaps we can use it for reforestation in subtropical areas as well.)

List of 82 inga species threatened:
Inga allenii
Inga amboroensis
Inga andersonii
Inga approximata
Inga aptera
Inga arenicola
Inga augusti
Inga balsapambensis
Inga bella
Inga bicoloriflora
Inga bijuga
Inga blanchetiana
Inga bollandii
Inga bracteifera
Inga bullata
Inga bullatorugosa
Inga cabelo
Inga calantha
Inga calanthoides
Inga calcicola
Inga canonegrensis
Inga carinata
Inga caudata
Inga chiapensis
Inga coragypsea
Inga cuspidata
Inga cynometrifolia
Inga dominicensis
Inga dwyeri
Inga enterolobioides
Inga exfoliata
Inga exilis
Inga extra-nodis
Inga fosteriana
Inga gereauana
Inga golfodulcensis
Inga grazielae
Inga herrerae
Inga hispida
Inga interfluminensis
Inga ismaelis
Inga jaunechensis
Inga jimenezii
Inga lacustris
Inga lanceifolia
Inga latipes
Inga lenticellata
Inga lentiscifolia
Inga leptantha
Inga leptingoides
Inga litoralis
Inga macarenensis
Inga macrantha
Inga maritima
Inga martinicensis
Inga mendoncaei
Inga microcalyx
Inga mortoniana
Inga mucuna
Inga multicaulis
Inga neblinensis
Inga pallida
Inga pauciflora
Inga pedunculata
Inga platyptera
Inga pleiogyna
Inga pluricarpellata
Inga portobellensis
Inga praegnans
Inga saffordiana
Inga salicifoliola
Inga saltensis
Inga santaremnensis
Inga sarayacuensis
Inga sellowiana
Inga silanchensis
Inga sinacae
Inga skutchii
Inga spiralis
Inga stenophylla
Inga suberosa
Inga suborbicularis
Inga tenuicalyx
Inga tenuiloba
Inga unica
Inga xinguensis
Inga yasuniana
from:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=420.msg7844#msg7844