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A comment on RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50%. Parent comment

Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by bullfightonmars on Friday July 23, 2021 @02:21AM (#27927778)
A plant that creats more biomass is not going to deplete soils. In fact it might restore soils by fixing more carbon from the atmosphere and adding more organic material in the form of roots and shoots.

The biggest problem with fertilization and why it is applied annually is that it is very mobile and washes away in the rain or breaks down or evaporates.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by f6v on Friday July 23, 2021 @03:14AM (#27928071)
Doesn’t the biomass get dumped into the soil in a different place? You grow something, pick it, ship to a different country.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by londons_explore on Friday July 23, 2021 @05:04AM (#27928678)
At a minimum, the roots are left in the soil.

Normally other parts of the crop are left in the field too, like leaves and stems and whatever else doesn't sell.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by f6v on Saturday July 24, 2021 @02:51PM (#27943492)
Not to forget that nowadays plants are optimized for high yield. I’d imagine the fruit/stem biomass ratio is becoming higher.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by snemvalts on Friday July 23, 2021 @04:29AM (#27928490)
It needs to create biomass from something.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by PeterisP on Friday July 23, 2021 @04:35AM (#27928516)
The main content of plant-created biomass comes from atmospheric CO2 and water, not from soil (well, roots extract water from the soil, but that's not what we mean by soil depletion). A significant minority is nitrogen, which either needs nitrogen-fixing plants (which extract it from atmosphere) or fertilization.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by nicoburns on Friday July 23, 2021 @04:51AM (#27928602)
If the end-product is more carbon and nitrogen, doesn't that also mean it's less nutrient dense in other important micronutrients?
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by calmd on Friday July 23, 2021 @06:54AM (#27929303)
There is a long term trend that vegetables are getting less nutritious, yes. And it is speculated that it is because of soil depletion.

https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/frui...

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