roots & soil

[nabraxas]

some interesting things in this weeks new scientist magazine.

7000- is the DAILY death toll from malaria. most are african children. only 4 drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry in the past 20 years have been designed to combat the disease.

apparently the aus nuclear sience & technology organisation in NSW have developed a way to tell the exact year a drug(cocaine/heroin/marijuana) was grown, by measuring its background radiation signature.

& most interesting

"one of our key assumptions about how seeds germinate turns out to be wrong. they don't absorb water directly from the soil: instead, most of it comes from water vapour in the surrounding air.

soil particles have irregular,angular shapes, so soil is full of millimeter-sized air spaces. as a result only a small area of each seed is in direct contact with the water films that cling to soil particles. so they get most ov their water from the moisture in the air spaces.

(he thinks) that gardeners' habit of packing down soil does more harm than good. all seeds need is enough soil coverage to prevent the wind from drying them out."

[Torsten]

Originally posted by nabraxas:

one of our key assumptions about how seeds germinate turns out to be wrong. they don't absorb water directly from the soil: instead, most of it comes from water vapour in the surrounding air.

soil particles have irregular,angular shapes, so soil is full of millimeter-sized air spaces.

and coarse sharp sand tops the list for airspaces

[Auxin]

What, did they not test capsicum seed? I know many people that get superb germination rates by immersing capsicum seeds in water (either in a jar of water or with the paper towel-ziplock bag method [or my coffee filter-petri dish method].

Well, I guess scientific data is only as perfect as the scientist that does the work.

[nabraxas]

Auxin:

I guess scientific data is only as perfect as the scientist that does the work.

- & i guess you should know , but for the record the research was done by stewart wuest, a soil scientist with the soil conservation branch of the US Dept of Agriculture in pendleton, oregon; & published in 'society of soil science journal, vol 66, p 1760.