In gardening, success and failure of yours depends on the kind of soil you have that’s why it is very important to know that soil of the garden and factors that helps you to improve the fertility and quality of the soil. Plants are like human being as they also need food for their growth as human being and they get their food or nutrients from garden soil that is why growth of plants depend up on soil. A florist Wellington who also knew much about the railway sleepers provided the following information.

Soil is the major factor for growth of plants but we cannot ignore other factor while planting plants like sunlight. Plants also need good amount of sunlight for their growth as they get minerals form it. Proper gap between the plants is also important so that they get water properly. It is necessary to investigate the quality of your garden soil. There are major three factor that mostly needed by all crops in their growth process and that are nutrients, potassium, and phosphorous. It all these three elements are present in soil it will also called topsoil.

These elements are required by plants from the period of their growth to their productive phase or until harvest time. Plants also need other elements for their growth but in very less quantity and soil produce by its own.

What exacts topsoil is and why this name is given to it. As it is clear from its name topsoil it constitutes about 6 to 7 inch thick layer of the top rich portion of soil which is rich of organic materials that include million and billion beneficial bacteria, plants and animals decay earth worm that make rich soil that helps plants to grow healthy and beautiful.

What exacts subsoil is and why this name is given to it.Subsoil is found next to the top soil and it is made up of less distinct soil. Biological life is less active in this but it has big role in absorb of food from roots and in draining system also. During the time of cultivation by using spade and plowing subsoil is loosen up and it will helps in draining out of soil excess water. In loose subsoil oxygen will also reached to plant easily and that’s proof very helpful in growth of the plant and fruits of the plant.

Nearly each lawn could use a lawn aerator. A lawn aerator is usually a tool that will aid turn the soil and produce holes inside the top portion of the soil. It is that simple! Earthworms will also be in a position to obtain into the soil to help fertilize the soil with a lot ease.

Your lawn problem may not be because of insects or something else. This is when a lawn aerator can assist fix all your problems.

The one piece of gardening gear you need to consider to preserve inside your garden shed is usually a lawn aerator, by using a lawn aerator you’ll keep your lawn searching vibrant and healthy.

This stops the air and water finding via towards the root system which is essential to present wholesome searching grass, this is once you need to have a lawn aerator to relieve the compaction so that air and water will get towards the root base. There are two approaches you are able to inform if your lawn is over compacted, the 1st one is if your lawn is searching a bit thread bare and generally unhealthy then this might be the trigger of compaction inside the soil. The second way would be to take a spade and cut a smaller slice of the end of one’s lawn about a spades depth, then check to see if the roots of the grass is the correct length they will need to be according to what form of grass you might have utilized for the lawn.

Do not use your lawn aerator on dry soil; use it only when it can be damp. Do not use your lawn aerator when the soil is deeply waterlogged or really dry.

Use your lawn aerator on a standard basis and whenever it truly is needed. Use it correctly and also you could have rich, fresh grass and plants growing on your lawn. This is in particular critical in the event you strategy to produce a garden, plant flowers or anything else. Earthworms, water and oxygen will all help to keep your garden, plants and flowers to stay healthy and grow to their fullest potential.

If you uncover that the root length is really short and thin then this is usually a sign of too a lot compaction, the only cure for this is to use a lawn aerator to relieve the compaction. One factor you must make certain you do right after you’ve aerated your lawn would be to eliminate all the cores from the grass, when you usually do not do this you can uncover that your lawn can grow to be even more compacted than before.

Use your lawn aerator just just before planting your seeds, regardless of what kind of plant, flower or food you could possibly be planting. This will aid tremendously throughout the growth process. Earthworms want to obtain into the soil and aid your crops grow. Air and water requirements to get into the roots of your plants to assist them develop and survive.

You may like to research more dealing with Identify Lawn Weeds.

Container Gardens – Recycle That Soil

As the cooler weather of fall sets in, our container plants are beginning to wither. Many container gardeners will simply discard the potting soil from the containers. This is an incredible waste when it’s so easy to rejuvenate the soil, preparing it for use next year.

The average 10 pound bag of ordinary potting soil can cost from to on average. If you are a container gardener you know how quickly those bags of soil can be used up. By recycling that potting soil you can save some of your hard earned dollars for other things. Like more plants! I had to throw that in because my wife always says I have too many plants. How can anyone have too many plants?

To recycle and rejuvenate the soil from your containers you’ll need a plastic tub with a lid. I find a plastic storage bin with a tight fitting lid works about the best. You’ll be storing the soil for the winter months, making a lid a very good idea.

You will also need a bag of compost with Humus. A 40 pound bag at most garden centers will cost to dollars. It is important that you get the compost with Humus, as the Humus is the key. For most container gardeners, one 40 pound bag will be more than enough.

Once the plants have been removed from the containers, pour the soil into the plastic bin. You want to fill the bin to about half full. Once this is done you will add about 1/4 of the compost. About 10 pounds. Now you want to mix it all thoroughly. Your hands work best for this. Wear rubber gloves if you don’t want your hands in the Humus. You can also mix in a bit of dry grass clippings if you wish.

Place the cover on the bin and place it in the basement, or anyplace that doesn’t freeze. In the spring you’ll have rich healthy soil for your container garden.

I have used this system for several years with great results. Instead of spending over 0 for potting soil as I did in the past, I now spend about per year.

Earthern and Pot Culture Method to Check the Stability of Marine Azotobacter in Soil

INTRODUCTION

Among the three major habitats of the biosphere, the marine realm which covers 70% of the earth’s surface provides the largest inhabitable space for living organisms. The study of marine bacterial diversity is important in order to understand the community structure and pattern of distribution (Surajit Das et al 2006). For many years, the filamentous blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) were believed to be primarily responsible for N2 fixation in oceanic waters because low or negligible in situ rates were observed in their absence and there was a correlation of in situ N2 fixation with light intensity. However, evidence has been accumulating which documents the importance of bacterial N2 fixations in many and diverse marine habitats ( MARY LOU GUERINOT et al 1985) . It is commonly assumed that marine bacteria, since they live in the sea, must be Salt-tolerant organisms. ZoBell and Upham define marine bacteria as being bacteria from the sea which on initial isolation required seawater in the medium for growth. Therefore analysis of marine water will provide the effect of salts on the growth of marine Azotobacter. Biofertilizers are the source of microbial inoculants, which have brought hopes for many countries both economically and environmentally. Azotobacter sp is free living, known to fix atmospheric nitrogen. There are different strains of Azotobacter each has varied chemical, biological and other characters. Azotobacter and Azospirillum are two other efficient bacteria. The response of these organisms in increasing crop yield has been commonly experienced. These are the biofertilizers in the cultivation of most crops. Inoculation of soil or seed with Azotobacter is effective in increasing yields of crops in well-manured soil with high organic matter content. Experiments with Azotobacter cultures and crop plants at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, lead us to believe that significant increases in growth and yield of wheat, rice and vegetable crops could be obtained in pot trials. However, under field conditions, such uniform trends towards increases in yield are not always reproducible. We carried out pot culture experiment in order to assess the effects of Azotobacter isolated from marine source on the growth of Black gram. Their shoot length, root length and their chlorophyll content were measured.

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

Sample collection:

Samples of surface water were collected in the area of Thundi region (Palk Bay) .Sample collection was accomplished at the interval of approximately 20 days

Surface –water samples (at depths of 1-2 m) were collected in sterile tube containing Azotobacter selective medium. Sediment samples were collected separately in broth medium. (Table .1 and 2)

Chemical parameter of sea water:

Collected water samples were analyzed for total hardness i.e the presence of magnesium and calcium by EDTA (0.01 M Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) titration method. Total Chlorine content was analyzed by Mohr method.

In EDTA method 60 ml of water sample was pipetted to an Erlenmeyer flask. About 2ml of buffer solution (mixture of ammonium chloride and ammonium hydroxide), was added to the sample. A few drops of indicator(Eriochrome black) were added and the solution was gently stried. The EDTA solution was taken in the burette and titrated with water sample until the color of the solution turns red to purple to blue. As soon as the color of the solution turned blue, stopped the titration and record the final level of EDTA solution in the burette. Finally the experimental concentration of calcium and magnesium ions in the unknown water sample was calculated. The hardness of water sample can be classified using a sum of all the calcium and magnesium ions in solution.

In Mohr method 20 ml of sodium chloride (0.01 M) solution was pipette in 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask. Approx 2ml of dipotassium chromate indicator was added to the solution. Solution was turned bright yellow color. Silver nitrate (0.01 M) solution was taken in the burette. The known chloride was titrated with silver nitrate until the color changed from bright yellow to brick red color (swirl the flask constantly to see the uniform color). Finally the experimental concentration of chloride in the known solution was calculated.

To determine unknown chloride, 5 ml of water sample was taken in 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask. 2ml of indicator (dipotassium chromate) was added. Silver nitrate (0.01 M) solution was taken in the burette. The water sample was carefully titrated with silver nitrate solution. Near the end point drop by drop was added from the burette as soon as the color of the solution turned yellow to red, stopped the reaction and recorded the final level of silver nitrate solution in the burette. Finally the experimental concentration of chloride in the unknown solution was calculated.

Media preparation:

Different selective media were used for the isolation of Azotobacter sp from marine source. As the isolates are of marine origin, the media were prepared by adding 3 % sodium chloride (NaCl). Media used for the isolation of nitrogen fixing organism (Azotobacter) from marine sources were: (Table 3)

1). Jensen’s Agar Medium (with 3% NaCl)

2). Azotobacter Agar Medium (with 3% NaCl)

3). Burk’s Medium (with 3% NaCl)

4). Marine agar medium.

Processing of samples (Kannan, 2002):

10 ml of water sample were mixed with 90 ml of sterile distilled water it gave 10-1 dilution. From the 10-1 dilution, the sample was decimally diluted up to 10-9 dilutions. By using spread plate technique, 0.1ml of diluted sample was plated in a sterile Petri plates, containing selective media. The plates were incubated at room temperature (28º C) for 48-72 hours.

Identification of isolates:

Gram’s staining (Kannan, 2002)

Gram staining reactions were recorded from heat fixed smears of fresh cultures.

Catalase test:

Catalase test was performed by adding 3% hydrogen peroxide drop by drop to the slant of fresh Azotobacter culture. Presence or absence of bubbling was recorded.

Phase contrast microscopic observation:

Motility and cell shape were determined by direct observations of wet mounts of fresh broth cultures, using phase- contrast microscopy. (Table 4)

Acetylene Reduction Assay:

Individual colonies were picked, purified, and assayed as pure cultures for nitrogenase activity, using N-deficient medium. This technique is an indirect method of measuring nitrogen fixation at a point of time. This method provides a simple, inexpensive, highly sensitive and non-destructive procedure for measuring rates of nitrogen fixation. Cultures were randomly selected for this assay. Serum bottles with rubber stoppers were collected, cleaned and sterilized. 30 ml of the sterilized Azotobacter broth was transferred to each bottle .The organisms were inoculated in the medium and incubated at 28º C for 3-4 days .after incubation 10 ml of nitrogen gas , 3 ml of acetylene gas was injected in to the serum bottles using syringe ( N2 replaces the air inside the bottle). Incubated the bottles for over nite at 28º C. at the end of the incubation period, 0.5 ml of the gas sample was withdrawn from the bottle and injected in to a gas chromatograph with FID system with 80-100 mesh Poro PAK/ propack Q column. The column temperature was maintained at 80º C, detector temperature at 100º C and injector temperature at 120º C . The carrier gas used was nitrogen with a flow rate of 30ml/ sec, for flame ionization hydrogen and zero air at the rate of 30ml/sec .the area of ethylene peak was recorded for each culture. Randomly selected samples which showed maximum enzyme activity were selected for pot culture experiment.

Analysis of garden soil for Chemical and nutrient content for pot culture experiment:

Garden soil was collected from rhizosphere region. Collected soil was analysed for the presence of N, P, K, Copper, manganese, iron, and zinc.(Table 5)

Pot culture experiment :

The nitrogen fixing ability of the isolated Azotobacter sp was determined in garden soil by pot culture experiment by assessing the growth of black gram. After 7 days of sowing various characteristics of growth such as root and shoot length was measured and chlorophyll content was estimated. Experiment was carried out in GRD College. Coimbatore.

Healthy viable seeds were selected for the experiment .Each pot contains 50 viable seeds. 10-12 kg of finely processed soil was filled in each pot .sterilized the pots with soil at 15 lb pressure for 4 hrs. The broth containing active culture of Azotobacter (1 × 109 cells) was selected. Five efficient strains were selected based on acetylene reduction assay for the experiment. The broth cultures of the selected Azotobacter sp were observed under phase contrast microscope prior to inoculation. Pots were selected for the experiment was thoroughly cleaned with disinfectant. Pots were filled with right combination of soil.

The healthy seeds were selected. Those seeds were mixed with 3ml of Azotobacter inoculums and 3ml of cool rice porridge. Then the seeds were dried

Fifty seeds were sown in each pot. The pots were watered every day. The control pot