I read this article in the FHR Newsletter and it made me ask the question, will there someday be no more need for sidedress nitrogen for corn?
The University of Nottingham gave this press release regarding Azotic Technologies
Revolutionary Technology Allows Crops to Harvest
Nitrogen From the Air Instead of Fertilizers
Have you ever thought of air as the ultimate
crop fertilizer? We
haven’t either, but researchers at the
University of Nottingham have developed
a technology—termed nitrogen fixation—that allows plant to take nitrogen
directly from the air. A special bacteria takes up nitrogen from the air and
applies it to plant seeds as coating, enabling each plant cell to spontaneously
‘fix’ nitrogen. The new technology could be commercially available within the
next couple of years and it has the potential to replace environmentally
damaging
fertilizers.
Read more:
Revolutionary
Technology Allows Crops to Harvest Nitrogen From the Air Instead of Fertilizers
| Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green
Building
Wouldn't this change the playing field! Can you imagine corn making it's own nitrogen thanks to the help of bacteria? How low would corn prices go?
I have no idea how good the science or if it even works yet. I am sure the news would travel like wildfire if it were true.
Ed Winkle
I have been wondering about this for a long time, there is no reason really why all crops could not benefit from these symbiotic association with bacteria and fungi.
ReplyDeleteThe association with nodules of nitrogen bacteria gave rise to the legume family, but biotechnology can probably (or will) create such associations that will promote starch production instead of proteins. Otherwise, if you just manage to associate corn and some of these bacteria unchanged, you'll end up with a 'leguminized' corn that won't be so good for ethanol, HFCS or maybe even feed, and cows might fart a lot more than they do currently.. ;)
Interesting article on Scientific American's current food issue about the upcoming new fungi for crop production.
Nothing like this has panned out so far so you have to wonder.
ReplyDeleteI know one thing, if it did work it would make soybean and other present inoculants look like child's play!
I just haven't seen the proof to know if they are even close on this one but I found it interesting enough to talk about today.
Ed
In the mean time, there's real time chlorophyll sensors to side-dress nitrogen on each plant at the quantity they require: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/Seven-big-data-lessons-for-farming-223632331.html
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