Travis, As a Master Gardener, I've heard several speakers talk on need to protect the microorganisms in the soil if you want excellent growth. So I suspect you have a good idea regarding those bulbs that tend to be difficult to grow outside their native location. It would be interesting if someone did the research. Karl Church Dinuba zone 9b On Feb 4, 2016 4:09 PM, "Travis O" <enoster@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I've been reading 'Teaming with Microbes' by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne > Lewis (Timber Press 2010) and it has got my imagination going. Most > gardeners are familiar with or have at least heard of the ability of > leguminous plants to "fix" nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form plants > can use, a result of a fungal symbiosis. The book describes in detail the > complex microscopic ecosystems that inhabit healthy soil and interact, in > many cases symbiotically and beneficially, with (according to the book) 90% > of all plants on Earth. > > Now it seems that the common practice amongst this group, and many other > specialized plant groups, is to use completely sterilized soil (or > "medium"). Could there be a benefit to inoculating our bulb seed, or > perhaps the dormant bulbs themselves, as one may do with food crops? > > To me, it seems entirely reasonable to assume that many wild bulb > populations have some sort of positive relationship to the microfauna in > the soil they share. Keeping with this line of reasoning, I wonder if some > of the "difficult" bulbous species out there, unknown in cultivation, may > only need the correct fungal association (or bacterial, or whatever) to > survive in cultivation? Or could using beneficial bacteria/fungi to > inoculate our current bulbs improve their vigor, or other unforeseen > benefits? > > Is there any research out there on this? > > Travis Owen > Rogue River, OR > > http://www.amateuranthecologist.com/ > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >