North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["alden@waldenwinds.com" <alden@waldenwinds.com>]

Anton wrote:
<<Nitrogen fixed by the bacterial/shrub partnership is mostly used by the 
host plant (until it dies and breaks down).>> 
Hector Black has previously written that his Eleagnus Umbellata were 
"generous" with their nitrogen, stimulating nearby trees.  Attending the 
NNGA, studies were reported in conference that Black Walnuts with Eleagnus 
Umbellata interplanted were measurably much larger than those without the 
beneficial interplant.

<<Even then, the nitrogen is released slowly- not at all like synthetic 
fertilizers.>>
This says that the form of nitrogen delivered by Eleagnus Umbellata [the 
interplant species confirmed by the study to increase the size of its 
co-planted black walnut] is a superior, safer form of nitrogen.         I am 
still in awe that ecologists can discard a form of nitrogen that is safe, 
generated biologically on site, delivered to where it is needed.  Now that 
Eleagnus Umbellata has been written onto a biological elimination list, 
apparently ecologists want us to synthetically create nitrogen, transport 
it from distant sites to the delivery point, and burn plants and soil 
bacteria in the process of applying it.  Isn't this a supreme failure of 
ecology?

Charlie in Massachusetts