Plant–Rhizobium symbiosis, seed nutraceuticals, and waste quality for energy production of Vicia faba L. as affected by crop management

Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture

Table 4 Nitrogen sources of broad bean plants at the different planting times in open field (OF) and greenhouse (G)

Planting time	Root active nodules^a		Plant N				N fertilizer saving
	Root active nodules^a		Fixed by Rhizobium		Derived from fertilizers		N fertilizer saving
	OF (no. m⁻²)	G (no. m⁻²)	OF (kg ha⁻¹)	G (kg ha⁻¹)	OF (kg ha⁻¹)	G (kg ha⁻¹)	OF (Mg ha⁻¹)	G (Mg ha⁻¹)
27 September	1260c	1083d	267.0d	235.8e	55.4a	40.6c	2.33d	2.06e
11 October	1410b	1269c	295.5c	267.7d	57.0a	50.2b	2.58c	2.34d
25 October	1566a	1320bc	342.2b	294.7c	35.1d	41.7c	2.99b	2.58c
8 November	1677a	1107d	379.3a	258.3de	30.8d	43.6c	3.32a	2.26de
22 November	555e	609e	152.5f	166.4f	31.5d	31.7d	1.33f	1.46f

Within each variable, values followed by different letters are significantly different according to the Duncan test at p ≤ 0.05
n.s. not statistically significant difference
^aRoot active nodules refer to the highest nodule number, recorded during the fruiting phase