Of interest to organic soil growers - the Cannabis microbiome

[Tuku]

Came across as interesting article titled "Understanding Cultivar-Specificity and Soil Determinants of the Cannabis Microbiome".

Here's the abstract:

Understanding microbial partnerships with the medicinally and economically important crop Cannabis has the potential to affect agricultural practice by improving plant fitness and production yield. Furthermore, Cannabis presents an interesting model to explore plant-microbiome interactions as it produces numerous secondary metabolic compounds. Here we present the first description of the endorhiza-, rhizosphere-, and bulk soil-associated microbiome of five distinct Cannabis cultivars. Bacterial communities of the endorhiza showed significant cultivar-specificity. When controlling cultivar and soil type the microbial community structure was significantly different between plant cultivars, soil types, and between the endorhiza, rhizosphere and soil. The influence of soil type, plant cultivar and sample type differentiation on the microbial community structure provides support for a previously published two-tier selection model, whereby community composition across sample types is determined mainly by soil type, while community structure within endorhiza samples is determined mainly by host cultivar.

Certainly opens up an interesting area of research and reveals that no single soil type or microbial inoculum is best for growing cannabis as different strains respond differently and have their own specific requirements.

 

[Tuku]

Forgot to add the link. Fortunately, the entire article is freely accessible.

 

[Plasma]

Great find!

 

[ethnoman]

This is the kind of research I love reading! Thank you for the share.

 

[YarraSparra]

Excellent find! The plant microbiome is a fascinating area of research, but still in its infancy. Great to see some cannabis-specific research being done.

Back in April of this year, there was a special issue of the journal Botany dedicated to research on the plant microbiome. Some very interesting studies were published in it.

Here's the link the issue.

Some of the publications are freely available, but most are not.

One review article which I found particularly interesting was "The microbial ecology of flowers: an emerging frontier in phyllosphere research". It would not surprise me if research in this area ends up revealing that microbial associations on flowers influence the expression of various phytochemicals. This could be of obvious relevance to cannabis cultivation.

YS

 

[Seamaiden]

Y'all know that Ernie Munch's theory is only just being proven, yeah? (I think this one actually deserves its own thread, if someone should feel so inclined).
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/science/trees-plants-nutrient-flow.html?_r=1

Came across as interesting article titled "Understanding Cultivar-Specificity and Soil Determinants of the Cannabis Microbiome".

Here's the abstract:

Understanding microbial partnerships with the medicinally and economically important crop Cannabis has the potential to affect agricultural practice by improving plant fitness and production yield. Furthermore, Cannabis presents an interesting model to explore plant-microbiome interactions as it produces numerous secondary metabolic compounds. Here we present the first description of the endorhiza-, rhizosphere-, and bulk soil-associated microbiome of five distinct Cannabis cultivars. Bacterial communities of the endorhiza showed significant cultivar-specificity. When controlling cultivar and soil type the microbial community structure was significantly different between plant cultivars, soil types, and between the endorhiza, rhizosphere and soil. The influence of soil type, plant cultivar and sample type differentiation on the microbial community structure provides support for a previously published two-tier selection model, whereby community composition across sample types is determined mainly by soil type, while community structure within endorhiza samples is determined mainly by host cultivar.

Certainly opens up an interesting area of research and reveals that no single soil type or microbial inoculum is best for growing cannabis as different strains respond differently and have their own specific requirements.

Yes! It also makes me wonder about cannabis (or maybe more properly hemp) as it may be used in soil remediation. Microbes must play some role in that, wouldn't you think?

 

[Rosenberg]

Awesome paper bro. Some very interesting research is being done on the human microbiome too at present.

 

[Tuku]

@YarraSparra, thanks for the link, some very interesting looking articles in that issue.

@Seamaiden, undoubtedly microbes play a significant role in soil remediation. Just look at some of the research Paul Stamets has done with saprotrophic fungi.

@Rosenberg, yes there sure is! At the moment probiotics are very non-specific and have little hard evidence to support their efficacy for a range of conditions. Evenutally however, as we discover exactly which species do what for us, probiotics will revolutionize health.