Bacteriostasis in soils sterilized by gamma irradiation and in reinoculated sterilized soils.

An agar-disc method was used to compare the bacteriostatic properties of five soils with those of samples of the same soils sterilized by gamma irradiation. For three of the soils, bacteriostasis was removed either partially or entirely by sterilization. Bacteriostasis was completely restored to sterile soil by reinoculating it with natural soil. All the reinoculation treatments restored the level of bacteriostasis equally effectively, whatever the origin of the soil used as inoculum.