Manure, green mulch, and bacteria help marigolds pull metals from dirty soil
Athira N, Anand P, Singh MC, Ray P, Golui D
Phytoremediation
If you're gardening on old industrial, roadside, or urban fill soil, marigolds paired with compost-style amendments could help draw out nickel and zinc while still giving you a full display of blooms.
Researchers added cow manure, chopped leaves from a nitrogen-fixing green manure plant, and a metal-loosening bacterium to polluted soil. Together these freed up nickel and zinc so marigolds could absorb more of them. The plants stayed healthy and their flowers stayed attractive, though plants in untreated polluted soil actually photosynthesized faster because they were taking up fewer metals.
Key Findings
Farmyard manure alone at 3% w/w (T2) improved growth and flowering traits of marigold in polluted soil.
The combined treatment of 3% w/w farmyard manure, Sesbania green manure (30 g fresh leaf per kg soil) and the metal-solubilizing bacterium Bacillus aerius-WSB68 (T7) raised nickel and zinc bioavailability and boosted antioxidant enzyme activity, carotenoids, relative water content and membrane stability index versus control.
Plants in unamended polluted soil (T1) had higher photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration because metal bioavailability was lower, showing a stress trade-off in amended soils without loss of flower quality.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Mixing farmyard manure, a leafy green manure, and a helpful soil bacterium into contaminated soil made nickel and zinc easier for marigolds to take up. The flowers kept growing and blooming well, so ornamental marigolds could help clean polluted ground without losing their looks.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Amendments for enhancing phytoextraction potential of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) in heavy metal polluted soil: effects on crop growth, physiological and biochemical responses.
To enhance phytoextraction potential of marigold (Tagetes erecta L. var. Pusa Bahar), an attempt was made to increase the bioavailability of heavy-metals in a polluted-soil through organic amendmen...
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Sesbania is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, and the only genus found in tribe Sesbanieae. Riverhemp is a common name for plants in this genus. Notable species include the rattlebox, spiny sesbania, and Sesbania sesban, which is used in cooking. Plants of this genus, some ...