Mycorrhizal fungi

jackman1944

17 years ago

I have read the best way to grow Mycorrizal is to do it by potting method. The article said grow leeks in the pots and when the leek is mature shake the soil from around the roots and trim some roots. That soil is where the Mycorrizal is and I can use it in the tomato soil. Trim the leaves off the potted leak then re pot it for the next time.

Anyone ever tried this before?

Thanks

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Comments (8)

bella_trix
17 years ago
Hi jackman1944,

I'd be real interested in reading this article! I'm fascinated by mycorrhizal fungi. Have you read Paul Stamets book "Mycelium Running"? It has a great section that's about gardening. He shows how to increase crop production by growing with mushrooms. He also talks about specific mycorrhizal fungi (in spore form) that you can add directly to seeds to help them grow. You can purchase it at

Fungi Perfecti http://www.fungiperfecti.com/mycogrow/index.html

listed as "plant success tabs". I'm glad you posted this because it reminded me that I wanted to order some for my very new garden space. Please post again if you find anything more about the onion/tomato method.

Bellatrix
bella_trix
17 years ago
Whoops, the powdered myccorrhizal for vegetables and seeds in actually called "microgrow" and is listed further down the page than "plant success tabs" at Fungi Perfecti. Very reasonably priced, too.
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I add this to all of my plants. Well, almost all of them. Everything except for my orchids and other epiphytes that don't grow in ordinary soil. I like to use Jobe's Organics Fast Start. It adds many beneficial microbes to the soil, bacterial & fungal. In all the years that I've been doing this, I've never encountered any problems. In fact, quite the opposite. All of my plants do really well. You probably already know this, but I'd thought that I'd share this excerpt about this symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi: "Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with plants at the root level. These fungi enshroud and, in some case, penetrate the structure of plant roots to form an intimate connection that facilitates a 2-way nutrient exchange. The mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi essentially extend the root system of their associated plants to help the plants easily draw in nutrients, minerals, and water from afar. In return, the mycorrhizal plant provides the fungus with photosynthesized sugars. The oldest plant fossils have been found with this association and it has been theorized that this relationship is what enabled plants to first come out of the oceans and onto land nearly 500 million years ago. Today, nearly all plants still form mycorrhizal associations. The few plants that do not are considered divergent weeds that have developed alternative strategies of survival. Most all cultivated plants perform much better when associated with mycorrhizal fungi and some plants require such associations to grow at all. Thus, it is highly recommended to learn to grow mycorrhizal fungi to improve soil fertility and increase plant health and productivity." Fertilizing our potted plants doesn't replace this relationship. The mycorrhizal fungi don't fertilize plants, they merely help the plants better absorb those nutrients from the soil. And in return, the plants give the fungi the sugars that they create thru photosynthesis. I mentioned earlier that I don't use them on my epiphytes, but that's not because orchids don't form symbiotic relationships with fungi. It's just that they rely on a different form of beneficial fungi. In fact, out in the rainforests, orchid seed germination would not be able to take place without the aid of these orchid mycorrhizae. Orchid seeds have no energy reserves of their own. They need the fungi to "infect" them and provide them the energy they need in order to germinate. For the longest time, orchid growers couldn't get their orchid seeds to grow. They would just spread them around the roots of the mother plants and hope for the best. This is why growing orchids was originally so expensive; because they could only be collected from the wild, or divided up as they got bigger. It wasn't until this symbiotic relationship was discovered that people were finally able to breed their orchids. After this discovery, everybody was able to cultivate these plants; creating literally hundreds of thousands of hybrids in the process.
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celery
17 years ago
I'm glad somebody posted something about mycorrhizal fungi, I wish more people were aware of the many benefits of this fungus (most importantly increasing phosphorus uptake in low phosphorus soil). Most of our land plants (flowers, crops, trees) have some form of mycorrhizal association. An easy way of inoculating plants with mycorrhizal fungi is to take a known mycorrhizal plant from its environment with native soil attached and plant it in your garden next to other plants you want to inoculate. The extraradical hyphae of the fungus extend from the mycorrhizal plant to other plants in the vicinity and inoculates them. The species of fungi are often compatible with many different types of plants. However, trees and vegetables have associations with mycorrhizae that are totally different (trees and shrubs with ectomycorrhizae - that produce mushrooms and vegetables with endomycorrhizae - no mushrooms).

The inoculum won't be in your ordinary potting soil. I am planning to innoculate the vegetables in my garden (leeks in particular) and will probably order Myke's inoculum to ensure inoculation (http://www.usemyke.com). But as Bellatrix mentioned there are other sources as well.

Well I went on a rant there! I just can't contain myself when talking about mycorrhizal fungi.

Thanks for listening!

Cathy
timshaw
17 years ago
Wanted to see if anyone has had more experience with this. I have put endo/ecto mycorhizae under all the veggies I started this spring. Everything seems to growing like crazy, but I have large amounts of compost in the beds and have put about a cup of wormcastings under every plant as well (maybe I'm a little obsessed)
Thanks, Tim
barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
17 years ago
ProMix has added Mic. fungi in a line of their potting mix. just save yourself a lot of trouble by paying $1.45 extra per 3.8cu.ft. bale to have it included. The details and testimonials are on their website: www.premierhort.com
stephe7
14 years ago
http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/depts/NFfield_trials/0903/daviddouds.shtml

This is a way to grow your own.
michaelc0
14 years ago
Here is another link showing how to make your your own mycorrhizal inoculum.

Here is a link that might be useful: making your own mycorrhizal inoculum
Plantmyco
9 years ago
Hello Friends, How are you? I am new in this Forum. I am PhD student in China. I am planning to work on Pisolithus tinctorious that is Ectomycorrhiza. I am planning to inoculate Pisolithus tinctorious with Fagaceae plants.My teacher also asked me to design my experiments to use the inoculum of Pisolithus tinctorious and AMF fungi to inoculate ECM plants and AMF plant together. that is to say that one set with AMF plant, other set with ECM plants and the last one set to be inoculated with AMF and ECM fungi together. I need help in this matter, as I am new in this field. What should be the pot size? and how many seedling can be used in pots? other part is how many set of pot or number of pots represent one block? as I will carry this experiment in Pots. Thanks in Advance!!
Regards,

Mycorrhizal fungi

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bella_trix

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