mycorhizae and rhizobium soil inoculum

[christopher lewis]

ola hello - please excuse my portuguese being too poor to write

 

i have been reading about the importance of soil fungi and bacteria in producing a healthy soil for plants of all types, as well as the importance of the rhizobium bacteria in allowing leguminous plants to fix nitrogen

 

i understand that new soil eg from made-up ground, and dead and mistreated soil, can lack these

 

does anyone know how inoculums can be acquired here in portugal - the only places i've seen on the internet are in the US

 

thanks,  chris lewis

[Burra]

They are difficult to find in Portugal as they are *supposed* to be endemic, but our soil was so dead that we couln't hardly get any beans to grow at all. We ended up importing a tiny amount, I think from America via ebay, and made a small bed of the best soil we could find and grew our beans on that, then, after the bacteria had started to multiply, we took soil from around the roots of these plants, added water to it, then soaked dry beans in it before planting them. Enough bacteria seemed to attach to the seeds to allow the beans to grow, and gradually we have extended the area that is innoculated. After two years, there seemed to be enough bacteria in our soil so that we don't have to bother any more. We also grew a few beans on top of the compost heap in the hope that the bacteria would inoculate the whole heap and spread wherever we put the compost.

I just had a quick look on ebay and found this if it's of any interest, but it might be worth looking elsewhere as it could take ages to arrive.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fix-N-Grow-Granular-Legume-Inoculant-Safe-Nat...

[Ambra]

Hi,

I would actually try to slowly introduce & enhance existing mycorrhiza and rhizobium bacteria by planting & transplanting similar local plants (clover for example). Or bring in some soil from places where the respective plant you want to grow grows well - which is bound to be a good incoulum (that's how one does it with orchids as well, which have a specific type of orchid mycorrhiza attached to their roots).

There are some enterprises in Portugal marketing mycorrhizal fungi:
http://www.micoflora.com/9/micorrizas.htm
http://www.micoplant.com/micoplantport.htm
...and the Centre of Functional Ecology at the University of Coimbra's expertise is research on microbia and root interactions and I'm sure you can ask them whatever you want on the topic.
http://ecology.uc.pt/index.php?menu=0&tabela=geral&language=pt

Hope this helps,
Ambra

[Andre]

I wonder if it wouldn't be enough to add a small portion of locally sourced soil that has mycorhizae and rhizobium for them to spread from that.
If that would be enough the question might be then how to know if they are present, and if there isn't a simple procedure how much would an analysis cost.

[christopher lewis]

hi ambra,
thanks very much for your reply, and the links, which i will explore with the help of a portuguese friend
your idea is good and pretty logical i guess but hadn't thought of it - just spread the good stuff around and let it multiply

all the best, chris

Ambra said:

Hi,

I would actually try to slowly introduce & enhance existing mycorrhiza and rhizobium bacteria by planting & transplanting similar local plants (clover for example). Or bring in some soil from places where the respective plant you want to grow grows well - which is bound to be a good incoulum (that's how one does it with orchids as well, which have a specific type of orchid mycorrhiza attached to their roots).

There are some enterprises in Portugal marketing mycorrhizal fungi:
http://www.micoflora.com/9/micorrizas.htm
http://www.micoplant.com/micoplantport.htm
...and the Centre of Functional Ecology at the University of Coimbra's expertise is research on microbia and root interactions and I'm sure you can ask them whatever you want on the topic.
http://ecology.uc.pt/index.php?menu=0&tabela=geral&language=pt

Hope this helps,
Ambra

[Toca do rebento]

I think you can spread it with the right plants...dont you?

[Toca do rebento]

Maybe this can HELP