How to make/reproduce rhizobium

How can you make and harvest rhizobium like the companies sell?

Can you make a rhizobia tea using an aerator compost tea methods and then immediately spray it on an area? Would you be able to innoculate peat moss and store for later use like it is produced commercially?

I could imagine creating a rhizobia tea could result either poorly or quite well. There could be a change of the rhizobium, making it not as effective on your plants. There could be so much other bacteria that they would compete and be weak, or there could be so much other bacteria that they were working symbiotically and resulted in a great batch.

It is not financially sustainable for me to buy a pack of Rhizobium lupini for $45 that will only inoculate one-pound of lupine.

Lets do some brainstorming (I imagine Ken can help with this one)

google rhizobium medium agar

"RZB * Rhizobium Medium

Yeast extract........ 1.0g Agar................ 10.0g
Soil extract....... 200 mL Mannitol............ 10.0g
Spring water; add enough to make total vol of 1000 mL

Make soil extract by autoclaving 400 grams of rich garden soil in 1 or 2 liters of spring water for one hour at 15 pounds pressure. Allow to cool slowly to avoid foaming out of container. Allow to stand a few days (need not be sterile) and decant (pour off) the clear liquid. If you wish you may autoclave again for 15 minues at fifteen pounds and allow to stand for a few weeks to obtain super clear soil extract.
Use RZB as slants. It gives good growth of Rhizobium species which are found in the nodules on the roots of legumes. Rhizobium species grow well on mannitol which is a rare sugar alcohol. " http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/b030.htm

Methods in Legume-Rhizobium Technology (PDF)

What? 45 dollars of inoculant for a pound of lupin beans, what are they selling you a quarter teaspoons worth? Something doesn't make sense there a billions of bacteria in the packet, are you mixing it with water and then sloshing the seeds in it or you applying it dry?
I'm all for cutting out the MAN but something doesn't sound right about your application rate, I checked out windcrestorganics.com and saw that BS they put on there site to sell more "overpriced inoculate". The average application rate of most inoclate's that cost 2 bux is 8-16 pounds.
I don't know why my google searches arn't turning up any australian sites selling lupini rhizomes, they carry that stuff in the average feed store like we do bean rhizomes. Whover windcrestorganic's is seems to have cornered the internet search market and has gone way too far in there profit ethics.
I'm sorry I havn't been able to find an alternative site to point you to but 45 dollars vs 2 dollars, 1 pound vs 16 pounds somethings just wrong. It's like they've gone to the trouble to reproduce a packet of rhizobium and want to retire off of it. I've got a few lupins that are on their 4 year in the same spot, maybe I should dig up some roots, pop of some nitrogen nodules and fire up the pressure cooker.

There something weird about north america, i find anything the eco fascist deem invasive seems to always have a clamp on seed availability. Pampass grass seeds at 100,000 seeds per head, but if I buy a see pack of pampass grass for 4 dollars theres 10 seeds in it, as if it was collected at the tip of a volcano or something.
I don't even want to ask what you paid for the lupin seed's but for god sakes don't spend that 45 bux. There must be another common name for lupin why the google searches are coming up so empty.

In his other lupine thread he stated that the size package was for 100 pounds of seeds. He cannot justify buying that to inoculate his one pound of seed. It appears that the inoculate is packaged for commercial growers, but not home use.

http://www.intxllc.com/upload/N-DURE_Lupine_SpecLabel.pdf

Thank God, i wonder what the heff's with the link i found stating 45 dollar's worth will do 1 pound, I really hope I read it wrong maybe it was one pound of inoculate with no stated application rate. I'm sorry if I misread it it's been a long weekend of dry plucking, evisceration, offal pressure cooking and dog food sausage making. To top that off I think I burnt my dinner of dry aged duck.

http://store.windcrestorganics.com/Lupin-Inoculant-p/s-lupin%20inoculant.htm

I think that link you provided has a misprint. Nobody would pay that price to inoculate that quantity of seeds.
Here is a bigger package:
http://www.intxllc.com/upload/N-DURE_Lupine_SpecLabel.pdf

It must be a misprint, it was the only site with a buy now button I could find.
Hence why i put two and two together 45 bux + 1 pound, after finding that site I was furious.

Thanks for the link
8 ounces (Inoculates 100 lbs of lupine seed)
that's more like it, it's why i wondered if the other site was selling a half a teaspoon

Saybian,
I saw the same exact link as you and thought it was crazy, hence the reason why I started this thread. I paid $45 for 50lbs untreated lupine seed from www.hancockseed.com. Thanks for your input!

John,
I have 50lbs to treat, but I saw a link that said $45 to treat one pound of lupine seed. Too me that was highway robbery, but I agree it must be a typo of some sort (i hope).

INTX MICROBIALS sells 8oz's of lupine rhizobia that inoculates 100lbs of seed for $10.90
http://www.intxmicrobials.com/product.php?id=63

Thanks John for this link!

I am resolving this thread, even though the main topic wasn't answered.

Here is some info I found on how they make this in the labs (too difficult for me):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bit.260210902/abstract
http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/b030.htm

I've prepared this a time or two.

http://permaculture.org.au/2012/02/04/how-to-prepare-a-beneficial-microorganism-mixture/

Glad that the link helped. I didn't see anywhere they quoted a price. I assumed they dealt only in case quantities (wholesale).

Another link you may find useful...Univ of Minn & Wisc did a study on commercial plantings of lupine (but it's on this Purdue site):

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/lupine.html

Fifty pounds of lupine seed? Better get some beehives (and a camera!).

Fifty pounds of lupine seed? Better get some beehives (and a camera!).

We have 20 hives on their way It's going to be a gorgeous site!

I've prepared this a time or two.

http://permaculture.org.au/2012/02/04/how-to-prepa...eficial-microorganism-mixture/

Thanks George. This will be a big help, we are working with a site that has barely any soil. All the extra EM will be really helpful.

Hi Jason and all,
Do you by any chance have any suggestions for making a veeeerrrry low-tech inoculum - (ie no electricity) by crushing nodules and inoculating using a soil carrier. I am designing a system for susbsistence farmers, using hand planting, and would like to be able to be able to inoculate by using a pinch of soil in a planting hole. Also, any idea the best way to store nodules from one season to the next?

The easiest technique is this:https://youtu.be/Xbal8sG_2cA