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Nitrogen Fixating Plants and Groundwater
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Posted by laag (My Page) on Sat, Dec 6, 08 at 8:50
| I had a person on a regulatory board request that I delete Northern Bayberry fom a planting plan of a rain garden. The reason given was that it has been recently discovered that it is a nitrogen fixing plant. It was stated that because of that it would allow more nitrogen to enter the ground water. Apparently, this person believed that if the plant was fixating nitrogen it would use nitrogen from the air rather than absorbing nitrogen from the water in the rain garden.
Has anyone heard of this being a problem?
The question is whether nitrogen fixing plants are less effective at removing nitrogen from soil than other woody plants. |
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RE: Nitrogen Fixating Plants and Groundwater
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| I am amazed. Nitrogen-fixing plants are at worst neutral on the issue. At least for annuals, the peak of nitrogen fixation occurs at flowering or just before and reduces as the plants develop fruit. At the death of the plant, the remaining nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and symbiotic nitrogen-fixing algae and other organisms become food for other organisms. There is no realistic comparison between the contributions of biological nitrogen-fixing and those of agricultural and horticultural loading and loss of fertilizers. |
RE: Nitrogen Fixating Plants and Groundwater
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| There is no algae living in the soil fixing nitrogen, algae needs light for that. N2 fixing plants are unlikely to let nitrites and nitrates slip by, N2 from air isn't free, a plant will do better if it pulls up all it can from the soil. Fertilizers of any kind on the garden will lead to a bigger problem. Fixed nitrogen is only a problem with run off or if the water has very little ways to go under ground, there are bacteria that survive far from O2 on unfixing nitrogen, and every set of roots between the rain garden and the river gets a shot at it. |
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