Allright thought id start a thread dedicated to microbes, doesn't have to be anything in order just if you find anything interesting bang it here. Might help clear my desk top. I will get it started with this.
This was the response from a dutch company that markets as Rootgrow.
A couple of us wrote to Rootgrow and got this helpful reply today...
Dear Ian and Alan,
You both enquired about rootgrow and Trichoderma on the same day, which was very unusual for us so i hope you don't mind me combining your email response.
rootgrow contains UK origin mycorrhizal fungi, a combination of arbsucular mycorrhizal fungi and ectomycorrhizal fungi, it does not contain Trichoderma.
It is likely the two products are compatible, however i need to clarify that point.
With a Trichoderma product it maybe easier to think of it as a foliar fungicide, i.e. you spray it onto leaves and the soil surface.
Trichoderma is a myco-parasite, a parasite of fungi and has been known to help control damping off or pythium in seedlings and botrytis (Gray Mould) in some crops.
Mycorrhizal fungi exhibit a symbiotic relationship with their host plant, they exist attached to plant roots living underground where they source water and nutrients and feed them to the host plant.
As a rule of thumb, use Mycorrhiza when planting into soil on the plant roots on mature plants that have left propagation, use Trichoderma in container growing, including seed growing and propagation of young plants. You can try introducing Mycorrhiza in propagation but due to artificial substrates and restricted root development the benefits are usually small, mycorrhiza really benefit plants when planted into soil.
If you were to inoculate young plants with mycorrhiza and then do a deep soil drench of Trichoderma (not just a light foliar spray but soaking the compost, which would be very expensive) then there maybe some antagonism between Trichoderma and mycorrhiza i.e. the Trichoderma would start feeding off the Mycorrhiza.
I do know of some Dutch scientists that have however found no antagonism, in fact the two organisms work well together, that may have been down to a unique strain of Trichoderma. It is here that we are right on the edge of science and what we know, it will probably be a decade or so before we understand these interactions better. As far as I recall on my studies on Trichoderma we hadn't even properly identified Trichoderma to the Species level, they were known as Species Aggregates.
If you wish to try using the products in conjunction please follow the above advice, there should be no detrimental effects to the plants as the likely negative outcome would be the Trichoderma just consumes the Mycorrhiza, however initially and from a common sense point of view try it on a small number of low value plants and see how you get on.
Regards
Mark
Bookmarks