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OR
S
omewhere between 460 and 400
million years ago, plants made the
leap to dry land. And it’s possible
they wouldn’t have survived it without fungi.
Like modern plants, and like their
aquatic relatives, the oldest-known land
plants captured energy from sunlight to
make simple sugars out of carbon dioxide
and water. Their ancient fossils also indi-
cate an association virtually identical with
those that form between fungi and the roots
of modern plants. The association is a
mutually beneficial one, providing a two-
way flow of nutrients: sugars made by the
plant pass through the roots to the fungus,
while water and inorganic nutrients collect-
ed by the fungus are transferred to the
plant. The structure responsible for this
exchange — the colonized root — is called
a mycorrhiza (literally, fungus-root). Since
mycorrhizae have been around as long as
terrestrial plants, scientist theorize that
their presence helped aquatic plants make
the challenging transition to dry land.
The science of mycorrhizae has grown by
leaps and bounds since I first learned about
them, as I discovered at a recent talk by Jeff
Anderson of Mycorrhizal Applications, Inc.
(MAI), a company that distributes mycor-
rhizal inoculant in a variety of commercial
products. For one thing, the mycorrhizal
condition is now considered to be the rule,
not the exception. Under natural conditions,
an estimated 95 percent of all plants form
mycorrhizal associations with one or more
fungal species. (Only weeds, apparently, get
by without them.)
Since fungi form networks far more
extensive than most plant roots and can
exploit smaller spaces in the soil, mycor-
rhizae increase the absorbative power of
root systems by 10 to 1,000 times. They also
improve the structure of soil and can release
hard-to-access nutrients from the remains of
living things. Research shows that mycor-
rhizal plants grow better, show greater dis-
ease resistance and are better able to tolerate
environmental stresses such as drought.
Although most plants can form mycor-
rhizae, the necessary fungi are not always
present. They are lost when soil is dis-
turbed by tilling or building operations or
subjected to excessive use of chemicals.
Growers can now choose to boost the
soil’s mycorrhizal content with commer-
cially available products, resulting in a
reduced need of inputs such as fertilizer.
Farmers can save money and produce
healthier crops while reducing the level of
damaging nitrates that leach into water-
ways. When I asked Anderson whether
home gardeners could expect to benefit
from adding mycorrhizae to their soil, he
surmised that almost all would benefit.
Only gardeners who have practiced organ-
ic gardening on their soil for years, com-
bined with no-till or low-till methods,
would likely observe little difference.
Most of MAI’s business is in agricul-
ture and forestry, Anderson says, but
another important application is ecological
restoration on damaged or naturally nutri-
ent-poor soils such as sand. Whether you
are gardening, farming or restoring
ecosystems, a variety of products contain-
ing a mix of mycorrhizal species is avail-
able for projects on any scale. For best
results, the goal is to place your “mycor-
rhizal propagules” close to the root system
of the target plant. You can incorporate
granules in the soil, put a tablet in each
planting hole, water with soluble product
or plant bare-root starts that have been
dipped in gel. Some soil mixes and organ-
ic fertilizer blends contain mycorrhizae.
All or some of these products are avail-
able from Lane Forest Products and Gray’s
Garden Centers (look for the brand names
Plant Success and EB Stone). Down to
Earth sells a similar range of mycorrhizal
additives under their own brand, and adds
them to their own-brand potting soil and
several fertilizer blends. One simple way to
introduce the fungi is to use plant starts that
have been raised in soil mixes that contain
them. Many nurseries now use soil mixes
(from Lane Forest Products, for example)
that incorporate mycorrhizal fungi.
I switched to Down to Earth potting
soil a few years ago. Within a week, I
noticed such prodigious root development
that I’ve stuck with the brand ever since.
Recently, as veteran vegetable gardener
and Down to Earth employee Karl Haga
showed me some other mycorrhizal prod-
ucts at Down to Earth, I asked if he ever
got feedback from customers. “Oh yeah!
People think they’re great,” he said. “Do
you want a personal endorsement?” He
went on to describe an experiment with
four pepper plants, two with, two without
a single application of granules. The
“with” plants were “one third greener, one
third bigger and one third more produc-
tive.” Haga recommends putting granules
in the soil at planting time and then water-
ing in Soluble Root Growth Enhancer two
weeks before flowering.
For more information about mycor-
rhizae, visit www.mycorrhizae.com and
www.plantrevolution.com
ew
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a garden consultant and
author of All About Gardens, a selection of past Eugene
Weekly columns. She can be reached at rfoster@efn.org
MY CORRNIZAL APPLICATIONS, INC.
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