The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the Rhizobium inoculation, associated with seed exudates of Mimosa flocculosa, under different rates of nitrogen fertilization was evaluated in bean crops following soybean (Glycine max L. Merril) and corn (Zea mays L.). The experimental design was randomized blocks with four replications, with treatments arranged in sub-divided parcels. The parcels were constituted of two summer crops preceding the common bean crop: soybean and corn. In the sub-parcels three treatments involving inoculation of the common bean seeds were considered: control treatment without inoculation; bean seeds inoculated with Rhizobium tropici, strains CIAT 899 and PRF 81, and the association of Rhizobium with the exudates of the Mimosa flocculosa seeds. The sub-subparcels received of four doses of nitrogen fertilization applied on covering: 0, 40, 80 and 120 kg ha-1 N. The inoculation of Rhizobium associated with the addition of exudates of Mimosa flocculosa seeds resulted in higher shoot dry weight. Besides that, the nitrogen fertilization, on the tested doses, reduced, in a linear way, the nodulation of the bean plant. It was also verified that corn as a preceding crop for bean has contributed to the increase of the weight of 100 grains, while the addition of combined N did not contribute to the improvement on the number of beans per plant, neither of the grain yield of bean plants, independent of the dose that was used.
Fertilization; Phaseolus vulgaris; symbiosis; biological nitrogen fixation
