Best inoculant for fava beans?

Trying to decide between two legume inoculant products:

- Exceed Pea Vetch & Lentil
- Exceed Garden Combination

I also want to grow cowpeas, lentils and scarlet runner beans - but am most concerned about getting the favas to fix nitrogen. I'm assuming that since favas (Vicia faba) are a type of vetch then the first product might be better, but if the all-around product works well, then I guess I should purchase it instead.

Which one should I get, or is there something else that would be better than either of them?

I'll be watching this thread as this is my first year growing them and I planted them before my inoculant arrived.  

I've asked pretty much the same question on Amazon Q&A and also twitter and gotten no responses so far.

I might go for the  Garden Combination since it contains the same organism as Pea, Vetch & Lentil, but at lower concentration, plus another for the other legume types. I don't need that much - these products are meant for crops not a backyard garden & they won't keep from year to year. I'm wondering how to apply - I guess I could follow instructions on the Pea, Lentil & Vetch for dry application and sow as usual?

Here are the package instructions for each product:
Garden Combination:   https://www.visjonbiologics.com/_files/ugd/8bccab_614578900bf84137bfd83971587375bb.pdf
Pea, Vetch & Lentil:   https://www.visjonbiologics.com/_files/ugd/8bccab_68ad0eeaaff8455fbd0a644ff170e534.pdf

I saw what fava beans did for productivity at a Community Garden years ago - you could see how the squash plants planted on the former fava bean patch were so much bigger and more vigorous than those close by, but not on the patch. Maybe this is a newb mistake, but it seems like you need incoulant in soil that has never grown crop legumes before - but I'm wondering why this isn't a topic I see discussed much so I can't help but think I must be missing something. My husband said his parents grew beans and that some grew really well, while others didn't. I'm guessing they would have used the same fertilizer inputs & of course the soil was the same. Perhaps some could use clover symbionts but others could not.

Inoculating was something I knew about but really never considered until this year.  I didn't have much luck with lima beans last year as I ended up with two plants out of three plantings and read that inoculant might help.  I'm growing fava beans because I'm fascinated that they will tolerate the cold temps (survived 11° with cover last weekend), I want to try them to see if I like them and I was amazed by the nitrogen nodules I've seen growing on other people's favas.  

My grandparents never inoculated but they had been growing for years by the time I came into the world.  When I applied it to my pea seeds I dampened them, applied inoculant and then shook the container so it would coat the entire seed.  It was a bit messy though.

Please keep us updated.  Even if I find I don't care for the taste of fava beans, I may continue to grow them as a cover crop.

I would go with the first on your list.

Here's a similar product that also shows it's for beans.

https://www.trueleafmarket.com/products/legume-cover-crop-inoculant-pea-vetch-bean-and-lentils?variant=31973640110195&msclkid=c524171e05311aed44a87521d065546d&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping%20Ads&utm_term=4579672091770384&utm_content=All%20Products

This year I am applying what I learned in a course about endophytic microbes and how they help seeds get off to a good start and help the plant throughout the growing season.

The concept is to take microbes from your garden and inoculate the seed with those endophytes. Specifically, I pulled up a clover plant that needed to be weeded anyway, and shook some of the soil from its roots into a dish. I then mixed the soil with water and used this to soak my fava beans before planting. I'm doing the same thing with the peas right now. This costs nothing and inoculates your plants with your local microbes, not something from a lab or another region.

If anyone's interested, the course is here: https://growingmodernlandraces.thinkific.com/courses/Microbes. I high recommend the course. It completely changed a lot of what I think about seed saving, seed collection, and plant care. I've known about plant microbiomes but I had no idea how important they are and how little we know about plants and their interaction with the environment.

Lh Forsythe, Thank you for posting this question.

I have read about inoculants for bean seeds though I never understood what it was, how to do this, and why.

While looking at those products and wondering what the ingredients were, I found this which help me learn more about this subject and why they are used.

https://permies.com/t/38534/DIY-Soil-Inoculant

My understanding is that the Nitrogen fixing bacteria can be specific to the legume variety. If the legume is native to your area then chances are the bacteria is already present in your soil and will fix happily with the roots as they grow. However I know that alfalfa for example benefits from innoculation in the UK since the bacteria strain is not normally present. It won't do any harm to add more, and could do some good. Since it is bacteria rather than fungi required, soil from an established vegetable garden may be of more use than a forest floor in this case.

Michelle Heath wrote:Inoculating was something I knew about but really never considered until this year.  I didn't have much luck with lima beans last year as I ended up with two plants out of three plantings and read that inoculant might help.  I'm growing fava beans because I'm fascinated that they will tolerate the cold temps (survived 11° with cover last weekend), I want to try them to see if I like them and I was amazed by the nitrogen nodules I've seen growing on other people's favas.  

My grandparents never inoculated but they had been growing for years by the time I came into the world.  When I applied it to my pea seeds I dampened them, applied inoculant and then shook the container so it would coat the entire seed.  It was a bit messy though.

Please keep us updated.  Even if I find I don't care for the taste of fava beans, I may continue to grow them as a cover crop.

I like both green and dried favas, but prefer the green. Don't know if I can still eat them, though, as I have developed a lot of food intolerances since the last time I had them; I'm mostly off legumes now, except for sprouted and boiled- to-mush lentils. Favas are good for some perimenopause symptoms, IIRC. They contain l-dopa, the dopamine precursor. I'm also going to try to grow Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean), which contains higher levels of l-dopa. What I think is really fun about favas is they seem like mother nature's take on over-packaging. They have big pods lined with velvety 'plant fur' and each bean is coated with a thick membrane. Some people peel the membrane and others leave it on; I prefer them peeled.