One example that most of us would be familiar with that shows how easily it would be possible for a plant or microbe to suppress the sicklepod is the allelopathic effect that cereal rye possesses. Cereal rye secretes a chemical that prohibits the germination of many small seeded plants. This is one of the reasons many farmers use it for a cover crop. The same general thing could be possible for a chemical that is released that prohibits the germination of the sicklepod seeds. Typically nature provides some type of counter measure for each and every thing. You don’t see any wild stand of pure sicklepod growing anywhere do you? Probably not….it’s man’s hands that create the conditions for such.


Here’s a short video talking about the basics of the interactions between plant roots and the microbial community…….