Re: Mycorrhizae Question

Nonna.PapaVino 4/19/2012, 12:55 am

Been 'shrooming for nigh on to 30 years now. There are lots of very good books to help. Because we live with some second growth forest on our property and more forests stretching clear to the Pacific Ocean, we have lots of places to look for mushrooms. See, there IS a reason to put up with more wet seasons than other parts of the country encounter, right?

Too Tall Tomatoes 4/19/2012, 1:01 am

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Been 'shrooming for nigh on to 30 years now. There are lots of very good books to help. Because we live with some second growth forest on our property and more forests stretching clear to the Pacific Ocean, we have lots of places to look for mushrooms. See, there IS a reason to put up with more wet seasons than other parts of the country encounter, right?

You sort of remind me of the restaurant owner I used to work for back in 1996. He was all about mushrooms. What a Face

FamilyGardening 4/19/2012, 1:08 am

hugs

rose

Unmutual 4/19/2012, 2:19 am

I use the granular, but unfortunately have no idea if the liquid is better. Technically speaking, if your MM is going on a few years, you probably have it already. The only reason why I bought some is because I started planting in what passes as soil in my backyard and I wanted to be sure I gave everything a fighting chance. I haven't put any in my MM that I can remember at least.

CharlesB 4/19/2012, 8:17 am

Not necessary at all but seems to help some people a lot. I don't think it is as important in MM because the roots have such an easy time making their way through the mix. You see a lot of the gardeners on Youtube who get improvements in hard to work soil with it because the roots need the help. If you have well worked soil or MM the roots don't have much trouble shooting out and getting established so the extra help of the fungi isn't needed as much.

If you look at some of the videos of it is almost like the fungi is a root extender.

Cincinnati 4/19/2012, 11:03 am

In my research, I discovered Mycorrhizae presence increases the propensity for ion exchange sites in the root system in plants. This permits easier and more complete nutrient uptake into the plant's vascular system. These good micro organisms also eat things that are harmful to the soil and to the plants — things like hydrocarbons, and other carcinogens.

Granted, these contaminates should never be in MM, but the presence of Mycorrhizae is always better than the absence of them. Who knows what might be in the stuff we purchase.

Ref. The Ideal Soil by Michael Astera or the website: http://www.soilminerals.com/index.htm

Nonna.PapaVino 4/19/2012, 11:40 am

Thanks, Cincinnati. You've convinced me to get another wheelbarrow full of forest duff for my beds! The new beds are 6" boxes resting on a hardware cloth bottomed 4" base, so would be easy to put the forest loam-duff in the base and top with Mel's Mix. Over time, they should share compounds, right?

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