Mycorrhizal Fungi

[bunkie]

ami, that loopks like a really interesting book. will be looking forward to your thoughts on its info as you read it....

[michaeljohnson]

I have just come across a very special substance similar to the Mycorrizhal fungi, but unfortunately it is only for peas and beans and only works with those plants, according to the makers it senses out pea and bean roots and immediately starts to make loads of natural nitrogen in the soil close to the roots, I know that peas and beans produce nitrogen in the soil from their own roots anyway, but apparently this causes them to treble that output-resulting in real jack and the beanstalk giant plants.
It is called (Natures Nitrogen) and is derived from a culture of Rhizobium bacteria, shame it does not work on other types of plants like tomatoes and squashes.

[robertb]

You could presumably make your own rhizobium culture from mashed up legume roots. How would you keep it going until the following year? You can keep a BT culture going by using mashed up dead caterpillars in milk, but I'm not sure how long it lasts since I've only needed the stuff once for an invasion of greater wax moth.

[PatrickW]

MJ: Rhizobia bacteria not only helps all leguminous nitrogen fixing plants, but it's arguably necessary to get any meaningful results from them. It's a symbiotic bacteria that nitrogen fixing plants need to fix nitrogen into the ground, and without it they can't fix any nitrogen at all. It's not a naturally occurring bacteria, but once in the ground stays a very long time, possibly 100 years or more. If you ever grow leguminous nitrogen fixing plants (beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, soy beans, fava beans, peas, field peas, clover, alfalfa, vetch, peanuts, lentils and many others) on a spot where they have never been grown before, you need to establish the bacteria yourself. I had to do this a few years ago when I started a garden on a piece of pasture land that was probably never used as a garden before.

There are different strains of this bacteria, and you need to have the one that matches the particular plant you are trying to grow. For example garbanzo beans need a rather unique strain, and if you try to grow garbanzos on a piece of land that has never had them before, it probably won't work.

There are a couple of ways of establishing this bacteria. One is to just grow whatever crop that needs it, and probably by the second or third year it will become well enough established in the ground by itself (but you probably won't get much of a harvest during this time). Another way is with a few shovelfuls of dirt from some place you know has the bacteria, or some roots of the plant grown elsewhere that have the nitrogen fixing nodules on them full of the bacteria. Finally, you can use a purchased inoculant. Natures Nitrogen is the brand name of the inoculant for sale in the UK, but as far as I know it's only the rhizobia strain for ordinary beans and peas.

I did a blog post on this several years ago:

www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=56

If you already have the bacteria in your ground, it's not an issue anymore, and adding inoculant will not increase your plant's performance.

[bunkie]

patrick, i have been reading a lot about recipes to use to drench the soil or use as a foliar spray where one creates EM/BIMs for specific plants. one ferments carrots for the carrot plants, fruit for the fruit trees, alfalfa for the nitrogen loving crops, etc... why couldn't there be a homemade recipe (EM/BIM) for creating the rhizobia bacteria, using the 'fruit', so to speak, of the bean plants, etc...?

[PatrickW]

Bunkie, I have little doubt such a concoction could be used to introduce rhizobia bacteria, but I think it's a little more trouble than it's worth.

Unlike MJ and the manufacturer of Natures Nitrogen suggest, rhizobia is not really a beneficial bacteria that helps legumes grow better if added, it's something you absolutely need for legumes. If you don't have it, you have to get it. If you have it already, adding more isn't going to help. If you understand what's going on, it's no big deal.

Companies that make these inoculants however have a product to sell, have to promote it and aren't in the business of explaining something this complicated to their customers. It's simply not however, something the average gardener needs in their garden or would benefit in any way from.

[michaeljohnson]

Apparently according to the vendor of the product it is mixed with ground up and dried (sedge peat) which is of course different to the more normal moss peat, and is a richer blacker sort of peat-although it is always classed as being inferior to spagnum moss peat.

I personally have grown very good runner beans for several years-on the same bit of ground in front of of a south facing fence with poles stuck into the ground about 18 inches in front of the fence, the beans were first grown on it in this particular bit of ground five years ago on virgin ground where no beans had ever been grown before, nothing was added to make them grow any better -other than and initial watering a couple of times with standard miracle grow to get them started from first planting out.

[PatrickW]

MJ: It sounds like you already have rhizobia in your ground, so adding more won't help. You can verify this by pulling up a bean plant after it's not needed anymore and looking at the roots. Small round white or yellow nodules are evidence of the presence of rhizobia.

The picture in the advert makes the packet of inoculant look quite large. In reality it's probably only 10 grams or so, and not enough peat by a long shot to make any difference in your garden.