N Fix

[ehanes7612]

what do some of you scientists think?


http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...encedaily+(ScienceDaily:+Latest+Science+News)

 

[wjs2nd]

Seems cool. Sounds like orchid seeds would need to be sprayed in flask for this to work.

 

[ALToronto]

I wonder if the effects will wear off in non-annual plants. I can see this working for crops for one growing season, but in orchids, year after year? Maybe as a genetic modification, but not as a topical application to a seed.

Is this how air plants manage to survive? If you could splice the genes from an air plant into an orchid, maybe you could get the same effect?

 

[Rick]

Orchids have developed relationships with mosses/bluegreen algae, bacteria, fungi, and lichens to do this. Actually lots of wild plants besides orchids share these relationships.

These relationships were pretty much neglected or severed in the development of mass food production agriculture.

When you hear of folks who grow orchids and never apply fertilizer they have allowed these old natural relationships to reassert into their culture regime. But in order to do this you need to quit adding so much inorganic ferts to your pots.

 

[naoki]

I've never heard of it, and it's cool. It is hard to imagine that this intracellular symbiosis is stable. e.g., how would the bacteria (or hosts) prevent exploitation by the partner? But it would be an interesting technology. Since N-fixation is a extremely energetically costly process, crops would grow better with fertilizer. But this technology could enable agriculture in the place where soils aren't fertile, and fertilizer can't be applied. Photosynthetic human, next?

 

[Erythrone]

I agree ... I is interesting but I wonder if it is only suitable for annual crops.

 

[Stone]

The end of the world is coming and it will be unstopable man eating plants drunk on N!