nodes

i left the alfalfa up and running in one of the beds...mostly because when i pulled a couple of plants up with the rye i looked at their roots and found the sugar producing nodes that feed the rhizobia bacteria that set nitrogen in the bed...i figured i'd let the process go on a bit longer...obviously the smaller plant had shallower roots and the nodes on its roots ( second photo ) were closer to the surface so the nitrogen the rhizobia sets is closer to the surface and available for plants that have shallower roots...the nodes on the roots of the larger plants were much further down the system and so set nitrogen more deeply...different sized alfalfa plants are creating a rich soil in all the levels of the bed they reach with their roots.