Animals & nature · 2023
Can treating carrot seeds with beneficial bacteria help them sprout?
Yes, some bacteria helped in a carrot seed experiment. Of 10 selected groups of bacteria, each separated from an environmental sample for testing, five improved seed sprouting. Not every group helped, and the abstract does not specify the comparison treatment or how large the improvements were.
Details
Researchers obtained bacteria from soil around plant roots, desert sand and sea mud. They separated 156 groups of bacteria from these samples and screened them for traits that might support plant growth, including making a plant growth hormone and dissolving certain mineral nutrients. They then tested 10 promising groups with carrot seeds.
Five improved seed sprouting. Selecting bacteria for growth-supporting traits therefore did not guarantee a benefit for carrot seeds. The authors interpret the results as pointing mainly to auxins, a group of plant growth hormones. They also suggest that bacteria's ability to dissolve phosphate, a phosphorus-containing nutrient, may play an additional role. The abstract does not establish how much each process contributed.
The finding comes from a carrot seed experiment, not a field trial. The abstract does not report whether the benefit continues through to crop yield or occurs under field conditions.
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