Interaction Between Rhizobial Inoculation and Fertilizer Nitrogen in Five Cowpea Cultivars

Abstract

Rhizobial inoculation with commercial cowpea ‘EL’ mixed strain inoculant as compared to noninoculation, and effects of four levels (0, 14, 28, and 84 kg·ha−1) of fertilizer N (CaNO3–15.5% N) on yield and N2 fixation components in cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] were investigated in a field study. Plants were grown on a vertic albaqualf, fine, montmorillonitic, thermal soil with a pH of 6.7. Three high (H) and two low (L) N2-fixing, indeterminate cowpea cultivars, ‘H-California Blackeye No. 5’, ‘H-Brown Crowder’, ‘H-Tennessee White Crowder’, ‘L-Lady’, and ‘L-Mississippi Silver’, were used. In inoculated plants, N2 fixation was significantly reduced with increasing N levels. Although high-fixing cultivars produced more and larger nodules and expressed higher nitrogenase activity than the low fixers, no significant differences in top dry weight and total N/plant were observed between these groups at the time of flowering. Seed yield was greater in rhizobia-inoculated plants than in the noninoculated, fumigated controls. A significant linear increase in seed yield was observed with increasing N levels in the noninoculated, fumigated controls. The addition of fertilizer N to cowpeas inoculated at planting did not increase seed yield. In high-fixing cultivars, N2 fixation did not directly influence seed yield, but increased vegetative matter was produced. Seed and biomass yield were influenced by N2 fixation in low-fixing cultivars.