Each pot contained 7.5 kg (dry weight) of normal soil with a naturalbackground concentration of 0.57 mg/kg Cd. Water (8 L) was added toeach pot. Five growing conditions were designed as follows: 1) normalsoil with no inoculation and no added Cd as control; 2) normal soil withadded suspension of strain 9#; 3) normal soil with added suspension ofstrain 9# and added Cd (total concentration 3 mg/kg); 4) normal soilwith added suspensions of equal amounts of strains 2#, 9# and 12#and added Cd (total concentration 3 mg/kg); and 5) normal soil withadded Cd (total concentration 3 mg/kg). Each experiment was carriedout in triplicate. Seedlings with similar appearance and biomass werecarefully transplanted into each pot. After 35 days, the plants were care-fully removed from the pots and the root surfaces were washed severaltimes with distilled water in preparation for examination of the role ofbacterial inoculation (single or mixed) on seedling growth. Throughoutthe experiments, the soil was maintained at 60% of its water-holdingcapacity, and fertilizers and farm chemicals were used in the normalway.