Been there done that have the t-shirt.

Wow! I never would have thought mycorrhizae would cause so much debate! I just finished going through this thread and I think it's really cool how much people are learning about mycorrhizae! The thing about mycorrhiza is that even though this organism has been around for hundreds of millions of years, evolving with the first land plants, we have only just recently even discovered it exists! I'm talking 1970's, by a guy who was studying truffles... And we're only just learning about the many ways it interacts with plants. The relationships can vary from fungi exploitative (as in certain types of orchids which don't even photosynthesize anymore because they take all the nutrients from ectomycorrhizal associations) to plant exploitative in which the fungi are parasitic on the plants. But in between these 2 extremes, plants and fungi live together in harmony. Because of all the benefits mentioned in the original posting by maggimae, there are perhaps dozens of companies that are attempting to market these fungi commercially. The problem with endomycorrhizae is it is expensive to produce in the form of inoculum since it can only be grown to maturity with a host plant. Companies that have been able to produce this inoculum will not give away the secret as to how it's done economically. Another problem with the commercial selling of mycorrhiza is many people don't understand how to use it properly. The big thing is, as was already mentioned, it won't work if the soil P level is high. The major benefit of mycorrhizae is they help plants absorb phosphorus in low-P soils. Mycorrhizal plants will actually send out signals to call for the fungi when they need more phosphorus. Another issue about using inoculum is if you are growing plants in a garden that already has a high level of indigenous species (organic gardens will likely have lots of mycorrhizae already) then the introduced inoculum will likely not have much of an effect. I have inoculated the plants in my garden with Myke's because I used topsoil bought from the hardware store mixed with potting soil and worm castings, so there was likely no mycorrhizae in there. There has been a lot of studies on the effects of tillage and mycorrhizae, in response to the previous posting. Tillage does break up the hyphal network and reduce colonization in the following year, but it does not destroy the spores and there will still be propagules that will remain as inoculum. Anyway that's all I have for now, I don't even know if anyone will read this posting but I like writing about mycorrhizae anyway. Cathy

I know, seeing things like a 100+ tall Norfolk Island Pine growing in the middle of the hood is what got me into conifers in the first place. The more I learn about evolution, trees, the earth's history, and how life (plant life especially) has come to where it is on this planet, the more my mind is blown. I'm rarely ever disappointed. Almost makes it seem like all the terrible things going on in the world aren't really there. And with that, here's a photo of "Retrophylum", the south american podocarpus species that strongly resembles coast redwood in it's leaf/needle arrangement... Also, finally scored a microcachrys, a female plant. Cloned at STrybing. Bought it for 5 bucks. If anybody's ever in San Francisco (I know how much some people on this list must hate that bastion of liberalism! ohhhhh my teeth are chattering!!!), it's worth stopping by the arboretum for their saturday plant sales, they have some really amazing, rare plants, conifers especially. They even have a good selection of lame stuff like cultivars. And santa lucia fir...

Good going, Dax. Your little corner of paradise is well on its' way. I'm going to start putting in seedlings this weekend, provided they ship in time. Stuff went out today from N. Minnesota (Itasca Greenhouse). Have no idea how long this will take to get here, but I suspect it will arrive any day now. 200 Norway spruce, 100 ponderosa pine, and 100 hybrid larch. Last Fri. I planted some more red-twigged dogwoods. These were free plants I dug up from where they were growing against a fence at one of our worksites. Stolonifera indeed! I will also be moving a fair number of Thuja o's from the woods up into the main planting area. Dax, next storm system, could you please set up a large fan and blow some of that moisture up this way? Since the beginning of April, we've pretty much had a blocking high pressure hanging over us.......lots of cool, dry air, winds out of the North/Northeast, which this time of year is a very dry direction. Conditions are great for the actual planting, but then I'm gonna need it to rain. I really have no reasonable way to water all this stuff. Kens' free-range concept taken to its' fullest extent! +oM