I've been lurking for a few weeks now, and thought I'd add my two cents to this
thread.
I'm a Ph.D. student in the NCSU Dept. of Plant Pathology. I'm looking at the
efficacy of organic amendments (i.e. composted cotton gin trash, hog manure
solids, and Rye/Vetch green manure) on soil fertility, microbial and nematode
diversity, and plant disease suppression compared to conventional fertilizers.
To address the question of the ability of microbial life to deliver the amounts
of nutrients required for healthy plants, _I_ think the answer is yes. The
numbers of microbes, and bacterivorous nematodes are much higher in soils with
organic amendments compared to conventional chemical fertilizers. Further, we
find better plant growth in these same plots, especially in adverse conditions
such as drought (we had moderate drought here this year), and root knot
nematode infestations. While the organic amendments didn't stop infestation of
tomato roots, plants in soils with CGT, or HW had greater feeder root growth
and were better able to obtain available water.
Just my two cents,
Russ
-- Russ Bulluck Graduate Student Plant Pathology NCSU Box 7616 Raleigh, NC 27695 ----------------------------------------------------------- We call things we don't understand complex, but that means we haven't found a good way of think about them. --Tsutomu Shimomura Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.--John Updike -----------------------------------------------------------
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