Jeff Lowenfels wrote:
I am not sure Joel is right about 95% of soil bacteria not being culturable......you mean you can't grow them in a petri dish? Where do you get this statistic? I have my teas tested frequently and have seen the numbers. The biodiversity is amazing and if that is only 5 % then so be it......though, again, I doubt the percentage.... I would suggest Joel get in touch with
Dr. Elaine Ingham Soil Foodweb, Incorporated info@soilfoodweb.com http://www.soilfoodweb.com/phpweb/ or Dr.Eric Nelsonn (Cornell) to answer his questions. - See: GreenReleaf Novozymes http://www.bi-chem.com/green_releaf/professional/tech_info/tech_info_backgrd.htm From their website: "Soil bacteria also manufacture a suite of trigger compounds that are attractive to other soil microbes and when present in the rhizosphere this consortium of microbes can be extremely beneficial to plants. Plus, when beneficial bacteria colonize the root surface they can often help exclude pathogenic microbes from gaining access to the roots. Interestingly, when plants are grown under sterile conditions they often do not thrive as well as when the full microbial community is present." -- L.F.London lfl@intrex.net http://market-farming.com .