Joseph
Tomatoes are an important and popular crop, but their delicious ketchup, ketchup, and pasta sauce comes at a price: overuse of chemical fertilizers. Now, ACS researchers report ‘ Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry They have recruited mushrooms to boost fertilizer efficiency, which means tastier tomatoes can be grown with less fertilizer.
Tomato plants have a long growth period and need more nutrients – especially nitrogen and phosphorous – than many other crops. Providing these nutrients through chemical fertilizers is ineffective, because the nutrients can leach out, evaporate, or get stuck in insoluble compounds in Soil, Among other problems. Some farmers react through the excessive use of fertilizers to increase the yield of tomatoes, but this leads to poor fruit quality, fertilizer waste, soil degradation and environmental pollution.
Another option is to use microbes that release nitrogen and phosphorous from the soil so that they can be absorbed by the crop, although this technique has not generally performed well in agricultural fields. However, Jianguo Huang and his colleagues previously used mushroom To enhance nutrient absorption and growth in field-grown eggplant. In their recent study, they wanted to see if the microbe could work with tomato crops.
The researchers used the HG2011 strain from Seriboria slowed downIt is a white-mold fungus with applications in medicine, wastewater treatment, sugar and biofuel production. It is known that it grows on trees and other plants and in the soil, it diffuses proteases, phosphates, and other enzymes to obtain nutrients from its environment. In the process, it transforms elements and compounds into shapes that plants can use. In the new study, the team showed that the fungus boosted enzyme activity in the soil, and improved Tomatoes” Nutrient absorption The yield is in both fertilized and unfertilized soils. The results suggest that composting from these fungi can be a cheap supplement that can reduce the need for chemicals Fertilizer. According to the researchers, the fungi – which are not harmful to tomatoes – also boosted nutrition and flavor by increasing the tomato’s sugar acid content, as well as the content of soluble sugar and vitamin C.
