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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria
  • Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 09:32:47 -0400

The bacteria originally posted about, Azospirillum Brasilense, is different from the Rhizobia strains used to inoculate legumes. The web site originally posted makes it sound as if Azospirillum Brasilense works with plants other than legumes, though it isn't very clear. It says Azospirillum Brasilense was originally found in the Amazon rain forest.

This page: http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Azospirillum_brasilense

says it's free living, but commonly found interacting with grass species. Apparently Georgia Tech Research Corp is studying it.

This page: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1388448/

seems to conclude that it's not actually free living for any length of time, as it disappears from soils quite fast if the inoculated plants are removed. (The page discusses survival in Israel and Mexico. If I'm reading it correctly, even with plants in the soil the bacteria died out rapidly in Israel and died out slowly in central Mexico, but increased in Baja California; if that's correct, it's possible it only survives well in certain soils, or in certain climates.)



-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



On May 15, 2011, at 8:51 AM, <sunnfarm AT netscape.com> <sunnfarm AT netscape.com > wrote:

I don't think NFB. can live on their own in the soil. I do know that NFB have to breathe through legume plants and the N is fixed in the roots of the legume. Whenever we plant a legume we have to inoculate the seed with NFB. There are special NFB.strains for different legume plants... Bob.

--- martyk wrote:

From: Marty Kraft
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria
Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 04:53:26 -0500

Thanks. I also found some stuff that said that it didn't persist very
long in the soil. Anyone else know anything?

Marty
On May 14, 2011, at 10:09 PM, Thamnophis wrote:

Marty - I recently heard a university horticulture extension person on
the radio say that nitrogen fixing bacteria does no good in decent
soils. She said there may be places that benefit from it, but
generally only if the soils are poor.

In Iowa, therefore, it is a waste of money most always.

Joe
Boone County, IA
5a

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 12:28 PM, Marty Kraft wrote:
Does anyone have experience or knowledge about using Azosprillun
Brasilense to fix nitrogen in the soil? These people sell it.
http://xtreme-gardening.com/azos/what-is-azos/

Thanks

Marty







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