Sea-derived soil boosters work great, until a plant is present
Ali W, Marfella L, Marzaioli R, Zammuto V, Santini G
Soil Health
If you've ever added a trendy soil amendment to your raised bed, this is a reminder that what works on empty soil can behave completely differently once your actual plants are growing in it.
Researchers took materials from the ocean, a sticky substance made by heat-loving bacteria, a soap-like compound from another bacterium, plus dried seaweed and cyanobacteria, and mixed them into soil to see if they'd improve its quality. Without any plants growing, all four materials made the soil noticeably healthier, boosting things like nutrient levels and pH. But once lettuce was planted in the same soil, most of those benefits disappeared, except for the bacterial soap-like compound, which kept helping even with lettuce present.
Key Findings
The exopolysaccharide (EPS) raised soil pH the most, from 5.30 to 6.13 in bare soil and up to 7.49 with lettuce present.
The seaweed biomass (Ulva ohnoi) increased cation exchange capacity, nitrogen mineralization, and nitrification in bare soil.
All four amendments improved a composite soil quality index in bare soil, but with lettuce growing, only the biosurfactant (BS) still significantly outperformed the control (P < 0.01).
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists tested four ocean-derived materials, including seaweed and bacterial compounds, as soil boosters and found they improved soil health in bare soil, but their benefits mostly leveled off once lettuce plants were actually growing in it.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Assessing the potential of sea-derived biopolymers and biomasses for soil quality improvement in soils with and without Lactucasativa.
Although many sustainable solutions have been tested to improve soil quality, there is very limited data about bio-based soil amendments derived from marine sources. In this study, the effect of am...
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