[compost_tea] protozoa

From: George and Paulette Mouchet <geomouchet_at_QNET.COM>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 07:35:14 -0700

Continuing my reading this a.m. in the Soil Biology Primer... Protozoa eat
protein-rich bacteria that contain too much nitrogen (in the form of
protein) for them. The protozoa release this nitrogen as ammonium. "This
usually occurs near the root system of a plant. Bacteria and other
organisms rapidly take up most of the ammonium..."

Organic matter --> protein (nitrogen) in bacteria --> protozoa eats
bacteria --> protozoa breaks down protein into nitrogen --> protozoa
excreets nitrogen as ammonium --> bacteria eat ammonium and convert most of
it back to protein

So the nitrogen just got cycled from bacteria to protozoa back to bacteria?

"...but some [of the ammonium excreeted after a protozoa eats a bacteria]
is used by the plant."

So, the whole point of this process is to release a little ammonium? Isn't
it overkill by the soil organisms to convert a lot protein/nitrogen just to
get a little ammonium?

The SBP says that row crops and grasses prefer the nitrate form of
nitrogen. The SBP seems to be saying that forest plants use ammonium.
 True? If so, then the ammonium released by the protozoa would only be
utilized by forest plants?

If this process of ammonium excreetion is occurring where row crops or
grasses are growing, would bacteria convert the ammonium into nitrite, that
these plants use?

Where do landscape ornamentals such as roses fit into this scheme?

Do plants have some kind of relationship with protozoa whereby:

1) they signal the protozoa that they need nitrogen

2) the protozoa eat a bunch of bacteria thus releasing some ammonium into
the soil near the plant roots

3) then, if the plant is a forest-type plant, it uses the ammonium
directly

4) OR, if it's a row crop or grass, bacteria take the ammonium and convert
it into nitrate for them

If a person applies ammonia-based fertilizer, would this increase the
populations of ammonia-converting bacteria? If so, is it this population
explosion that disrupts soil biology? Or does the fertilizer just kill off
the beneficial bacteria and fungi? If so, how?

Many thanks for everyone's time to clairfy this for me.
Paulette



-----Original Message-----
From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com [SMTP:soilfoodweb_at_aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 4:18 AM
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] compost

Making good compost is something of an art, because each batch of starting
materials is different, and you have to learn to adjust your composting to
take those differences into account.

Merry Bradley, a Master Composter, in Eugene Oregon, and SFI have been
working on testing dfferent recipes for back-yard composting, and have come
up with something that works well, to get the temp, for the time needed,
but
only NEEDS turning once, perhaps twice. Easy for back-yard gardeners to do
too.

The pub will be coming out, soon. But read soon as proably a year or so.
Takes time and money to do the proper science.

We have put the compost information back on the SFI website, because I have
not been able to get the compost book finished. Too many things we are
still
learning about the microbiology of compost!

Where do you learn what we ar learning? You have to come to a seminar
about
compost. One is coming up next week in Corvallis......

Elaine
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out
well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic

 << File: ATT00016.htm >>

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Received on Sun May 11 2003 - 12:17:16 EDT

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