Re: nitrogen fixing bacteria / soil tea

From: Steve Diver (steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU)
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 11:17:10 EST


Heide -

You followed the discussion? What did you learn about
soil tea?

>From what I recall reading, nothing.

It is a term that David Menne started using, yet he
never clarified his ideas or his approach and he
confused soil tea with compost tea and EM tea,
and there is no such thing as EM tea.

So, it makes me nervous to see this term being
used -- being "repeated" -- when it has no meaning
or practical basis.

Rhizobium is the legume inoculant. It works well
by putting it in touch with the legume seed, and
then the bacteria and plant roots develop symbiotically.

Did I read in the past you are working with nursery
crops and landscapes?

Here's an excerpt from my paper on nitrogen-fixing trees
you may find interesting:

"There are two broad groups of nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs:
Rhizobia-nodulated plants in the legume family (Leguminosae)
and Frankia-nodulated plants in the birch (Betulaceae), oleaster
(Eleagnaceae), buckthorn (Rhamnaceae), and casuarina
(Casurinaceae) families."

"Frankia is a unique genus of nitrogen-fixing (bacteria) in the
actinomycetes subgroup, and the symbiotic association these
actinomycetes form with trees is known as actinorhizal.
Examples of actinorhizal trees and shrubs adapted to the
temperate U.S. include alder (Alnus), autumn-olive (Eleagnus),
Russian-olive (Eleagnus), buffalo berry (Sheperdia), sea
buckthorn (Hippophae), goumi (Eleagnus), and Jersey-tea
(Ceanothus). The best known actinorhizal association is
Alnus-Frankia. Alnus, or the alders, is a genus comprised
of about eight tree species and one shrub in the United States."

(Bacteria) is in parenthesis because actinomycetes were
once classified as fungi, but I think they are now classifed
as bacteria.

Steve Diver


Heide Hermary wrote:

> Thanks, Steve, yes I am aware of legume inoculants, and have followed
> the discussions on compost tea and soil tea. . How about Rhizobium and
> Spirillum: can they be multiplied outside their symbiotic hosts via
> either of those methods? I did not know azobacter was available
> commercially.
> Heide

.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Apr 21 2003 - 15:26:38 EDT