Mycorrhizal Fungi (MF)
So, you’ve likely heard of this stuff before and maybe even use it yourself but the importance of this fungi when using organic nutrients or growing organically is paramount. There are different types of MF but the one we are interested in is arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) which forms a symbiosis or mutual relationship, with the roots of 90% of plants on the planet (Helgason, Daniell, Husband, Fitter, & Young, 1998). Unlike using salt based nutes, when growing organically in soil (which nearly all you soil growers here do btw) you are relying on the soil microbiology to break down these nutes and feed them to the plant by way of soil food web (see picture). The soil food web is an essay in itself but as you can see from the picture, fungi is what feeds the broken down compounds to the plant. Moreover, (AMF) enhances growth and fitness of the plant and improved resistance to soil-borne pests and diseases resulting from antagonistic processes associated with mycorrhiza (Hodge, Gosling, Goodlass, & Bending, 2004).
So, we can safely say that all organic soil growers should be using this but if you’re not already then throwing great white in your soil part way through your grow isn’t going to work I’m afraid. In order for AMF to function it must first develop the symbiosis in the rhizosphere (root zone) which happens at the early stages of a plant’s life. The plant releases exudates from its roots as soon as the tap root appears and these exudates are what form the AMF symbiosis, so it is of vital importance the root has contact with AMF immediately on germination. A simple and effective way to do this is to inoculate the seed, put simply dust the seed with AMF before planting, this will ensure the AMF symbiosis is formed from the start. Additionally, you should add some to your soil mix so that there is a sufficient population so that it can function properly. While AMF is found in all soils it can not live or grow with out the presence of a plant host, therefore there will be no AMF in your bag of soil from the grow shop, and if they tell you its in there already then ask them how it has survived? lol they will get uncomfortable I would imagine.
Ok so now you’re thinking “yup gotta get me some of that” but not all products are made equal. The spores we want are g. intraradices or g. mossae (g. stands for Glomus) it may also be listed as rhizophagus intraradices or rhizophagus irregularis. Many companies add Ectomycorrhizal fungi in to boost the spore numbers and make us think its shit hot but those spores are of no use to us. Also there is strong evidence that Trichoderma inhibit AMF (Martinez et al, 2004), so products like great white shark that have Trichoderma should be avoided. My suggestion is to compare all the available brands and find one with the highest numbers of the AMF listed above and the least Trichoderma.
Hope this is of help to you guys
References
Helgason, T., Daniell, T. J., Husband, R., Fitter, A. H., & Young, J. P. W. (1998). Ploughing up the wood-wide web? Nature, 394, 431. doi:10.1038/28764
Hodge, A., Gosling, P., Goodlass, G., & Bending, G. (2004). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in organic systems.
Martinez A1, O. M., Pardo A, Ocampo JA, Godeas A. (2004). Interactions between Trichoderma pseudokoningii strains and the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus mosseae and Gigaspora rosea. Mycorrhiza, 14(2), 79-84.
Bookmarks