Resource icon

A quick look in the rhizosphere of pines V1. Final

No permission to download

Wires_Guy_wires

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,407
Reaction score
10,629
Location
Netherlands
Wires_Guy_wires submitted a new resource:

A quick look in the rhizosphere of pines - Taking roots out of the soil and putting them in petri's.

I cut some pine roots off of live plants and put them in Petri's with sources of food for fungi and bacteria.
I wanted to visualize what happens after transplanting and how the rhizobial community (root-area community) restores itself in different pines and different stages of growth.
The document is a collection of that data. Draw your own conclusions, do whatever you want with it.

I'm not going to discuss results or limitations, this is DIY estimation kitchen science. I know that. You...

Read more about this resource...
 

hemmy

Omono
Messages
1,390
Reaction score
1,717
Location
NE KS (formerly SoCal 10a)
USDA Zone
6a
Interesting experiment, thanks for taking the time to post. Now I wonder about the possible benefits of inoculation for seedling and young plants, hmmmm. . .
 

Wires_Guy_wires

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,407
Reaction score
10,629
Location
Netherlands
Interesting experiment, thanks for taking the time to post. Now I wonder about the possible benefits of inoculation for seedling and young plants, hmmmm. . .
The benefits are there. American mycologist Paul Stamets has been raving about this for years. Decades even!
Even in my advanced biology book the chapter about mycorrhizae starts with a story about failed pine plantings in post-WWII Germany due to the use of sterilized compost.
I keep reading that bacteria are as important as the fungi.
But inoculation.. I'm not sure if that's needed. Pines and other plants are overgrown by fungi, from top to bottom. The fungi are present on the seeds (as long as one doesn't use peroxide for germination).

I did found that when i heavily fed the fungi and bacteria by providing external sources of carbohydrates, even collected pines bounced back faster than untreated ones.

What this "research" brought to my mind is the fact that a lot of people heavily use broad spectrum fungicides. It might do more bad than good, since there's hundreds of defensive fungi and bacteria trying to keep their host alive which are killed by the stuff as well.
The same as with people flushing their systems with antibiotics.. The microflora changes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.
 

Halifax

Sapling
Messages
32
Reaction score
50
Location
New England
Nice job on an excellent qualitative science experiment. Thanks for the article.
 

fredman

Masterpiece
Messages
2,706
Reaction score
3,687
Location
Wellington New Zealand
USDA Zone
8
Yeah that's the challenge. How to get a stable micro biological system going..and kept, in the pot. That is what will protect the tree. Spraying pesticides just kills off everything..leaving the tree defenceless against the pathogens.
Weeds like pathogens are the first to arrive when all in pot is killed...
 
Top Bottom