Thanks for sharing this Carrie. I really enjoyed it! Deb

Tracyvine, I appreciate your response very much. That was exactly what I was looking for. Seamommy, I consider some of your comments to be offensive. For clarity purposes, I have gone to my library (which had nothing about HVX), I have googled, and I found nothing that provided in depth information about HVX. I figured someone here would have an AHS publication that may include a great article about HVX that I don't have access to. But apparently it's cheating to ask anyone for help finding something - especially being a subject that is not widely discussed.

Thanks I enjoyed the read!

spores will overwinter, but an intact network allows so much more rapid growth. Basically, once the seedling is connected to said network, its root system becomes 10, 100 or 1000 times more powerful. When you start over with spores, the plant development is delayed by the lack of development of the network. I also agree that not all plants need this association. In my case, being a rather old fashioned type of gardener, 50% of my garden is brassica or beta species, which do not connect to the network. still, my field results show a positive correlation between yield and delaying weeding to spring or doing just seeding weeds removal. Weeds will generally rob small seedlings of light. They will seldom rob them of nutrients, since they are just temporarily stored in a weed, but not removed. And all tests show that a soil covered with vegetation will lose less water. and weeds do maintain biological resources. I do think there is an optimum, and that optimum is for non-zero weeds. One can always grow his own edible weeds, for example by growing overwintering chicory or celery in every bed.