Plants Eat Bacteria and Pee

[urbanfarmer]

Apparently, plants take bacteria in through their roots and digest them for the nutrients. One study I read showed that it would eat e.coli bacteria. That explains a lot in aquaponics and the benefits of these so called worm or compost teas!

I also saw another study that showed plants will uptake urea. We knew that plants would take in ammonia directly and of course nitrate, but urea too? That's amazing!

Thoughts? If you guys don't start posting more I am going to stop posting all this weird stuff I find!!!

[cedarswamp]

I knew about the urea as a large part of the nitrogen in Miracle Grow is urea.

[badflash]

Sounds right, but not impervious. I wonder about bacteria splashed on the leaves. There was that food poisoning incident caused by wild pigs that contaminated a bunch of greens a few years ago.

[urbanfarmer]

Well, the held belief (at least what I learned from the hydroponic community years ago) was that urea was broken down to nitrate and in nearly sterile hydroponic systems it was bad to use urea or ammonia based fertilizers because nothing would break them down. However, now we know that plants take these in directly!

I don't think they leaves do either badflash.

[cedarswamp]

I'm sorry I misinterpreted what you were saying. It's been my understanding that only NH4 and NO3 were directly usable by plants and that NH3 and urea must first convert to NH4 to be utilized.

[rfeiller]

if leaves can take up nutrients with foliage feeding, why not virus or bacteria?
urea is a cheap source of nitrogen, many fertilizers are urea based.

don't stop posting the "weird" stuff, accepted or not it certainly is food for thought and opens other pathways. apprediate it

[urbanfarmer]

I'm sorry I misinterpreted what you were saying. It's been my understanding that only NH4 and NO3 were directly usable by plants and that NH3 and urea must first convert to NH4 to be utilized.

Ah, then my post does strike you as unusual. Yes, the plants absorb urea directly. Plants also absorb ammonium directly, and I believe it doesn't really matter if it's ammonia or it's ionized form ammonium. I think for the plant it depends on the pH and some other factors. Definitely something I need to read up on!

if leaves can take up nutrients with foliage feeding, why not virus or bacteria?
urea is a cheap source of nitrogen, many fertilizers are urea based.

don't stop posting the "weird" stuff, accepted or not it certainly is food for thought and opens other pathways. apprediate it

Hm... Apparently, the pathogens do enter via the stomata (this is where foilar feeding/spraying takes place that's why you spray the UNDER side of the leaf not the top), but I have neither heard of or read any research that suggests the plant consume bacteria that enter through the stoma. I think you may have found a new research paper that needs publishing! If I see anything, I will share.

[rfeiller]

damn, i'm going to have to crack some old brain cells and do some research, that's gonna be painful!

[cedarswamp]

I have a paper in my bookmarks somewhere, I believe from the University of Kentucky that explains the different forms of nitrogen and how they are used by plants. Maybe it's outdated but I'll see if I can find it tonight.

[cedarswamp]

Once again I was wrong, it was the University of Nebraska not Kentucky..

http://lancaster.unl.edu/ag/factsheets/288.pdf