Posts Tagged: microorganisms
Managing Compost
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
With my small garden, the beds fill to overflowing. Thus, I do not always apply all my compost. My question: Can compost “go bad?” if it dries out? If it is not used for months? Thank you!
MGCC Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your compost question. You asked if compost would go bad if it dries out. The answer is not really, but it can change. If it completely dries, it may become a little difficult to wet the compost. You might want to moisten it before putting it into your garden.
When compost completely dries, many of the microorganisms (bacterial and fungi) will die, but some will form "survival capsules" or spores that will keep them alive until better conditions come along. Also, good soil is teeming with microorganisms that will "repopulate" the compost, and will continue to break down compost added to the soil.
So, compost that has dried is fine to use in your garden. It just needs some management. And congratulations on being a successful composter!
Please let us know if you have more questions.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)
Surprising Discovery: Nectar-Living Microbes Influence a Pollinator's Foraging Preference
See abstractSee full paperDAVIS--Hear that honey bee buzzing toward a flower? It's not just the...
Microbial stains (fungi and bacteria) isolated from floral nectar. (Photo by Rachel Vannette)
This is the electroantennogram (EAG) assay set-up. (Photo by Bryan Smith, USDA-ARS)
Mycorrhizae, underappreciated soil component!
Often in our gardening endeavors, it is only the plant itself that we know. However, beneath the...
Foodborne illnesses and the 100K Genome Project
Bart Weimer, professor in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, serves as director of the 100K Genome Project and co-director of the recently established BGI@UC Davis facility, where the sequencing will be done. Other collaborators include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The new five-year microbial pathogen project focuses on making the food supply safer for consumers. The group will build a free, public database including sequence information for each pathogen's genome — the complete collection of its hereditary information. The database will contain the genomes of important foodborne pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli, as well as the most common foodborne and waterborne viruses that sicken people and animals.
The project will provide a roadmap for developing tests to identify pathogens and help trace their origins more quickly. The new genome database also will enable scientists to make discoveries that can be used to develop new methods for controlling disease-causing bacteria in the food chain.
"This landmark project will revolutionize our basic understanding of these disease-causing microorganisms," said Harris Lewin, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.
The sequencing project is critically important for tackling the continuing outbreaks of often-deadly foodborne diseases around the world. In the United States alone, foodborne diseases annually sicken 48 million people and kill 3,000, according to the CDC.
"The lack of information about food-related bacterial genomes is hindering the research community's ability to improve the safety and security of the world food supply," Weimer said. "The data provided by the 100K Genome Project will make diagnostic tests quicker, more reliable, more accurate and more cost-effective."
"We see this project as a way to improve quality of life for a great many people, while minimizing a major business risk for food producers and distributors," said Mike McMullen, president of Agilent’s Chemical Analysis Group.
A consumer-focused article about the project is available on the FDA website.
(This article was condensed from a UC Davis news release. Read the full press release and watch a video of Bart Weimer giving an overview of the project.)