Almost any plant can be grown in soil can be grown can be grown in a hydroponic system, from trees to fruits and vegetables.
Because no soil is used, a liquid nutrient delivery system supplies all the nutrients a plant need.
Why should plants also need mycorrhizal fungi?
Simply put, mycorrhizal fungi offer the same benefits in hydroponic applications as they offer in planting media and soil. Mycorrhizal fungi are good at what they do, especially in the delivery of phosphorus and nitrogen to there plant symbionts. As they do in other growing systems, fungi grown in hydroponic systems expand the effective root area into the surrounding growing substrate, be it coconut fibre,roockwool,oasis cubes,gravel,perlite or vermiculite clay pellets or other material.
The same hyphal extension that occurs with colonised roots in soil also occurs with roots in hydroponic systems, weather plants are growing in soil, a planting mix or a hydroponic growing substrate, mycorrhizal fungi provide the same basic benefits to the host plants.
•inoculated roots in hydroponic systems are more resistant to pathogens including,rhizobia Pythium( I think we get the message here talkers.
•mycorrhizal fungi can create physical barriers around roots to protect them disease and pathogenic fungi.
•colonised plant roots branch and form more feeder roots, so more nutrients can be retrieved from the surrounding area.
•mycorrhizal fungi grown in a hydroponic system can support mycorrhizoshperic organisms that provide protective metabolites.
Mycorrhizal considerations for hydroponic systems
As with any growing system, for mycorrhizal fungi to thrive and benefit plants in a hydroponic system, growers must use the appropriate species of mycorrhizal fungi to colonise the plants being grown. They must also consider several other factors.
A hydroponic system that intends to support colonisation of roots by mycorrhizal fungi must be fully aerobic. To ensure that the fungi will survive, growers should maintain oxygen levels at 6-8 ppm(for context, most tap water provides 5 ppm of oxygen) oxygen can be added to the growing environment via air stones or bubblers( alltgough hydrogen peroxide can also oxygenate it will kill mycorrhizal fungi and host plant tissue and should not be used).
Most hydroponic systems use some form of media to support plants such as rock wool or expanded clay pebbles, many scientists use a modified hydroponic system for there studies, using sand as a growing medium and saturating with nutrient solution, but mycorrhizal fungi will grow in nearly any substrate, or even water alone if it provides enough oxygen.
I have warned people here!!!!!!
Hydroponic growers often add phosphorus to nutrient delivery systems, but an increase in phosphorus levels can result in decreasing amounts of mycorrhizal colonization. When large amounts of phosphorus are present in the system, at levels of around 70 ppm fungal spores go dormant and will not germinate. By monitoring phosphorus levels and avoiding adding too much fertiliser growers can encourage the formation of mycorrhizae.
The presence of chlorine and chlorimines in public water systems can also effect the mycorrhizal growth, chlorine dissipates into the atmosphere in about eight hours but chloramines take days to evaporate and should be removed from water used in hydroponic applications. You can find this shit out yourself easy enough it's getting tiring writing stuff that's easily obtainable pmsl..
The ph of water in hydroponic systems is also important. Most mycorrhizal fungi require a ph range of 5.5-7.0 to survive. Mycorrhizal mix packages often list the required ph levels
I'm sorry those of you using gws as this will be a bit of a knovk back possibly.
Have you been wasting your money talkers, I'm sure you'll have your opinions and who will brace the temps?????
Finally maintaining proper temperatures will maximise mycorrhizal colonisation, Arbuscular(I've said the types we use somewhere) mycorrhizal fungi thrive in temperatures of 65-75(24-30), which is the ideal temperature for most plants. Growers should be aware that vesicles, spores and fungal hyphae will not survive temperatures above 120 (49). Plants would die under such extremely high temperatures aswell. When storing mycorrhizal inoculants growers should also consider appropriate temperatures.
Using inoculants
Hydroponic supply sources offer mycorrhizal mixes specifically designed for hydroponic systems. In these blends,spores and hyphal fragments are mixed with delivery media in liquid or powder form. To establish mycorrhizae, make sure the inoculants are in direct contact with rooted or unrooted cuttings before they are placed into the hydroponic system, or soak the starter cubes in liquid formulations or granular formulations mixed with water, as in soil, the spores will germinate when they are signaled by the root exudates.
Many formulations can be added directly to the hydroponic nutrient delivery system; the particles within the mix are small enough to pass through systems without clogging up lines of emitters, mycorrhizal formulation suppliers should indicate the proper ways to distribute the inoculants.
Mycorrhizal fungi do not generally reproduce in hydroponic systems, so it is a good practice to add more inoculants to the nutrient delivery system as roots develop to ensure maximum colonization throughout the life of the plant.
How much more and how often?
The plants can offer the answers,fast root and plant growth require more frequent addition of inoculants. Because it takes about two weeks before mycorrhizae to become established(shit think do we even ever get mycorrhizal fungi established with weekly res changes sorry) application should be discontinued a few weeks before flowering for flowering crops and a few weeks before harvest of others, such as lettuce.
He names a load of veggies and shit here but I'll just put the cannabis people
Claroideoglomus claroideum. C, etunicatum. Funnelliformis geosporum. F, mosseae. Glomus microaggregatum.
Rhizophagus clarus and R. Intaraddices are successful inoculants for cannabis growing in rock wool, using mixes of several inoculants results in healthy plants.
Hope this is a bug of useful information family,
Hobbit I'm actually still gathering info trichoderma but if you have any specific questions I'll email the writer of the book and hopefully get them answered as he has helped me with a couple answers before.
Blessings and gratitude
Redz
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