ISHS Acta Horticulturae 631: XXVI International Horticultural Congress: Issues and Advances in Transplant Production and Stand Establishment Research
HYDROGEN FERTILIZER: BACTERIA OR FUNGI? |
| Authors: | P. Irvine, M. Smith, Z. Dong |
| Keywords: | bactericide, fungicide, hydrogen, plant growth promotion, soil |
| Abstract:
It is well shown that growth enhancement of non-leguminous plants occurs after crop rotation with legume plants. Although many believed this increase to be the result of lingering nitrogen in the soil from the legume plants, there was some evidence that additional factors were responsible for the increases in growth. Work done by Fyson and Oaks (1990) to determine the agent responsible implicated fungi. Other studies have shown that hydrogen is able to increase plant growth (Dong and Layzell, 2002) and that population of soil bacteria able to oxidize hydrogen increase in its presence (Popelier et al., 1985; Dugnani et al., 1986). This study attempts to determine if bacteria or fungi are responsible for the plant growth promotion by hydrogen treated soils. The addition of 36 mg/L of Benomyl lead to an increase in plants grown in both hydrogen treated and air treated soil samples. Conversely, the addition of 50 mg/L of Streptomycin and 50 mg/L of Penicillin lead to a decrease in the dry weights of plants in hydrogen treated soils, while there was an increase in air treated soil plants. These results suggest that the growth enhancement agent is bacterial in nature rather than fungal. | |
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