‘Dieta’ Sweet Lupin

This year we are offering for you to try exactly the same seed but pre-coated with helpful symbiotic Rhizobium bacteria, which help the plants to fix nitrogen from the soil.

Lupins, like peas and beans, form a cooporative relationship with bacteria living in the soil: the plants provide sugar and oxygen and little nodules for the bacteria to live in, and the bacteria fix nitrogen from the air and feed it to the plant. Both benefit – the plants get to grow well in soils that are very poor in nutrients, and the bacteria get a food supply and a safe place to live. 

Many soils already have these bacteria living in it – especially if you’ve already grown peas or beans in this spot, and these will colonise your baby plants once they germinate. But some soils simply don’t have the bacteria present and so it is quite common to use seed that has been pre-coated with the helpful bacteria just to make sure that it all grows well. 

Once you’ve grown a crop in that spot the bacteria will be present and you probably don’t need to buy inoculated seed again.