I grow rare cactus and succulents and after experimenting with Mycorrhizal inoculants I’m completely blown away with results I’ve seen. Even with soil that dries out completely between water (for extended periods of time) they still work their magic wonderfully and I see wonderful growth and survival with the roots showing the fungi growth as shown and described in this article.
As someone who's read a lot of pop sci on this topic as well as published research I went into this book expecting the tropes I've become very familiar with. Merlin Sheldrake actually brought some refreshing and unique takes and I walked away actually learning some new things. It's become my goto introductory book to get people interested in the world of fungi
I have added spores to my garden for a few years, & the results have been excellent. Not only have the plants thrived, the network spread through the lawn to a further extent every year, & the grass in that zone looks much healthier than the rest of the lawn. Mostly I sprinkle a bit in with each seed or row — it does the work from that point on.
Trees have shown the same pattern — we had a large, older tree go down, one which had quite a bit of fungus growing around it, & the trees planted near the old site did well while new trees on the other side of the yard did not, even with significant, regular watering.
Do you mind sharing which product you use? Every time I look into this I have a hard time telling which products contain useful amounts of good strains.
fwiw I got one of the first products listed on amazon when you search mycorrhizal fungi and I'm seeing the same effects stated by the grandparent comment
I wouldn't say that. There's plenty of behaviors where plants and fungi act in the interest of the community as a whole. Mature forests are made of late-successional species. These species could only possibly grow after earlier succession species had "prepped the soil" (nurtured the soil ecology, transitioned the nitrogen cycle from ammonia to nitrates, etc) and provided shade to allow them to grow. Since these trees are dependent on the well being of so many other species there is plenty of incentive for them to act in ways that we might call "selfless"
I grow rare cactus and succulents and after experimenting with Mycorrhizal inoculants I’m completely blown away with results I’ve seen. Even with soil that dries out completely between water (for extended periods of time) they still work their magic wonderfully and I see wonderful growth and survival with the roots showing the fungi growth as shown and described in this article.
If you haven’t read Entangled Life: How Fungi Shape Our World, I can’t recommend it enough.
https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life
As someone who's read a lot of pop sci on this topic as well as published research I went into this book expecting the tropes I've become very familiar with. Merlin Sheldrake actually brought some refreshing and unique takes and I walked away actually learning some new things. It's become my goto introductory book to get people interested in the world of fungi
I have added spores to my garden for a few years, & the results have been excellent. Not only have the plants thrived, the network spread through the lawn to a further extent every year, & the grass in that zone looks much healthier than the rest of the lawn. Mostly I sprinkle a bit in with each seed or row — it does the work from that point on.
Trees have shown the same pattern — we had a large, older tree go down, one which had quite a bit of fungus growing around it, & the trees planted near the old site did well while new trees on the other side of the yard did not, even with significant, regular watering.
Do you mind sharing which product you use? Every time I look into this I have a hard time telling which products contain useful amounts of good strains.
fwiw I got one of the first products listed on amazon when you search mycorrhizal fungi and I'm seeing the same effects stated by the grandparent comment
No problem! Myco Bliss has worked well for me.
I like how Ohio state university created a shiitake mushroom memristor. Fungi are fascinating
Sounds like communism to me.
It's more like the free market, but with all of the market failures, parasites and bad actors that implies too
I wouldn't say that. There's plenty of behaviors where plants and fungi act in the interest of the community as a whole. Mature forests are made of late-successional species. These species could only possibly grow after earlier succession species had "prepped the soil" (nurtured the soil ecology, transitioned the nitrogen cycle from ammonia to nitrates, etc) and provided shade to allow them to grow. Since these trees are dependent on the well being of so many other species there is plenty of incentive for them to act in ways that we might call "selfless"