Beneficial and Effective Microorganisms

Unfortunately, certain microbial cul­tures have been promoted by their sup­ pliers as being effective for controlling a wide range of soil-borne plant diseases when in fact they were effective only on specific pathogens under very specific conditions. Some suppliers have sug­gested that their particular microbial in­oculant is akin to a pesticide that would suppress the general soil microbial popu­lation while increasing the population of a specific beneficial microorganism.

Nevertheless, most of the claims for these single-culure microbial inoculants are greatly exaggerated and have not proven to be effective under field conditions. One might speculate that if all of the mi­crobial cultures and inoculants that are available as marketed products were ap­ plied at the same time, some degree of success might be achieved because of the increased diversity of the soil microflora and stability that is associated with mixed cultures. While this, of course, is a hypothetical example, the fact remains that there is a greater likelihood of con­ trolling the soil microflora by introduc­ing mixed cultures of compatible micro­ organisms, rather than single, pure cul­
tures