Seeds treated with bacteria sprout 50 percent faster
The improved sprouting speed is instrumental to farmers in Ireland, where seeds can rot in the damp soil before sprouting, Hickey said. The trio hails from Cork County, the agricultural southern tip of the country.
But the project really kicked off in Hickey's own backyard. "Émer and her mom were gardening, and she noticed nodules on one of their pea plants," Healy-Thow said. "She brought that into school, and our teacher told us it was bacteria."
The bacteria act as an early warning system for the plants, kickstarting growth. When the microbes sense the presence of compounds called flavonoids on plants, they begin to build nodules, swellings on roots that house bacteria able to convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms the plant can consume. The presence of the nodules then tells the plants it's time to grow faster.
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