ABSTRACT

Soil microorganisms play an important role in soil quality and plant productivity. The development of effective methods for Studying the diversity, distribution, and behavior of microorganisms in soil habitats is essential for a broader understanding of soil health. The present work aims to critically evaluate some central methods and procedures utilized in microbial ecological studies of pot soils in order to improve our understanding of the factors that affect the measurement results and to provide support for the design of experiments. Excluding plant roots, the majority of soil biomass is formed by microorganisms, the two largest groups being prokaryotic bacteria and eukaryotic fungi. In potted soil bacterial (including actinomycetes) and fungal biomass is estimated to be 8- 10 and 6-10 species, respectively. Potted soils are a collective form of various kinds of soil with each their own composition and specific structure, especially for plants in pots and flower boxes. Potting soil is light in weight, unlike for example the heavier dark garden soil. Temperature and pH varies in potted soils. The highest plate count of potted soil sample was bacteria such has Bacillus, Pseudomonas was dominating and fungai such as Cladosporium, A.flavs were dominating of samples which were incubated at 20°C. The diversity of the total bacterial and fungal community was Stretococcus, Actinomycets and S.pyogenes, S.coelicolor. Progressively lower counts were obtained in fungi.

Keywords :Soil microorganisms; Potted soils; Enumeration of soil; Microbiota of soil.