From: samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants,rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Growing fodder..
Date: 19 Nov 92 01:53:44 GMT
Organization: Crop Science Dept., NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620

In article <1992Nov19.003826.25426@athena.cs.uga.edu> maxfield@athena.cs.uga.edu (Joan C. Maxfield) writes:
>You may have some trouble with the alfalfa and the clover.  If I can
>strain my poor little abused mind back to my forages class, alfalfa
>and clover (and all legumes, like peanuts, etc) need to be inocculated
>with the bacteria that naturally co-exist with their root system.
>These are the bacteria that produce nitrogen.  (That is why peanuts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I would hesitate to describe the "nitrogen production assemblage" this
way.  At least in soybeans, I was under the impression that the 
bacteria penetrated the root hairs and took on a form called "bacteroid"
(I think).  More than coexistance, I'm fairly sure that *three* genetic
systems participate: the soybean, the bacterium and a plasmid.....and
I'm sure I'll be thoroughly corrected if I'm off the mark.

From a certain perspective, it's unfortunate that Georgia enjoys growing
peanuts, since I believe that aflatoxin is a major problem, but not
so here.  The point: I'm under the impression that sales of American
peanuts in Europe have nose dived because of the  3 ppb and lower safety
standard there.  If it were possible to ship NC peanuts unmixed with
Georgia peanuts, our market share might climb back to traditional
levels.
 
>are so big in the south now, they enriche the soil with nitrogen
>after being stripped of it during the cotton days)  Without the plants
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wonder what you mean by "during the cotton days?"
If you mean in the last century, nitrogen is one of those soil components
that turns over fairly rapidly and what was done "during cotton days"
of the last century is perhaps meaningless.

Of course, if you looked north from where you are, you'd see that
North Carolina (at the very least) is very much in "the cotton days"
now.

>particular strain of bacteria it will probably not establish well, if

Now, do you mean in an unfertilized field?  Or do you mean *even* in
an adequately fertilized field?  When I worked in Israel, we had
no trouble getting alfalfa established on what had been sand dunes, 
but then we applied ammonium solutions regularly.

>at all.  You should be able to purchase the bacteria inocculant at a
>feed and seed store and then wet the seeds and coat them with the
>powdered bacteria.  I hope, for your sake, that you already knew this
>and I'm just educating the rest of the unenlightened (like the people
>in my lab looking over my shoulder).  
>
>Joan
>
>J. C. Maxfield				maxfield@athena.cs.uga.edu

Steve
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