Mycorrhiza effectiveness on transplants

[wysiwyg]

I've been going through the archives here and have seen a few posts about the use of mycorrhiza fungus on established trees and how its not really all it's cracked up to be.

What is the consensus on the use of the fungus on new transplants or seed planting, and the effect on their survival and growth rates? Does it work better on some varieties than others?

Are there any suppliers that anyone can recommended? I know of Biovam and Fungi Perfecti - are they any good?

Thanks!

 

[jimmyq]

IMHO I would say that it depends on where you are planting, more specifically how long the soil has been fallow and how close to other existing plant material. Mycorhizzae seems to have a short lifespan without a host (plant roots), hence the longer the soil lays fallow, the more potential benefit of introducing Mycorhizzae with new plantings. As for the proximity to existing plantings my theory is that the existing Mycorhizzae in the root systems will migrate to the new plantings as long as they are close by, not sure what I mean by close by yet, perhaps a few feet at best. As for types of Mycorhizzae, I have seen ecto and endo Mycorhizzae available as specifics for certain families of plants or, as a general purpose blend of the two types of strains. There are some plants that definately do not benefit from Mycorhizzae, ferns, orchids and grasses are on the list. I have used Myke brand of products both in commercial container crop production and retail sale for use by homeowners and landscapers. I have seen tremendous root enhancement while used in hydroponic systems, I beleive this is because of the relatively inert planting medium of expanded clay or just plain old filtered water with nutrient solution. Be careful with excess synthetic nutrients, they seem to be harmful to the Mycorhizzae population, organics are purported to be the best way to go.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

My reading suggests, but it is more imperical then statistical, that many mycco products do not last in packaging/shipping, many nursery trees are already innoculated, just not with the most benneficial symbiot.

Also the most effective form of innoculation is to find a similar spieces tree in a wooded area and dig some soil from the root zone and use this in your planting pit for innoculum.