Have you heard the one about the mycorrhizal fungi?
You might well ask – what the dickens is it?
I was selecting a wee shrub or two the other day to fill a few gaps where there had once been herbaceous plants that proved to be inappropriate (I didnae like them) and was handed two or three bulky envelopes at the counter!
They contained the said micorrhizal fungi, in powder form.
“Try this when you are planting,” said the plant centre owner.
“These samples come from a good friend of yours and he swears by this treatment.”
The friend in question is Nick Dunn, proprietor of the Frank P. Matthews nursery down on the Shropshire/Hereford/Worcester border in the valley of the River Teme – a beautiful corner of Merrie England!
The nursery is famed for the quality of its stock, especially fruit trees.
I first went there in the late 1960s when I worked in Shropshire and when Nick’s dad was in charge.
If Nick says this stuff is the bees knees, I believe him.
I can follow the science and understand the role these “organisms” play in the health of our plants, but I have tried it before and was not able to discern any difference between treated and untreated plants.
Maybe I did not apply it properly or apply it at the right time.
All sorts of doubts assail me. I am going to have another go and report back in due course.
What does the stuff do?
These beneficial fungi are part of any soil’s flora and fauna and new plants will pick up the organisms naturally within the first year or two of planting.
In the natural landscape, more than 90% of plants will have these fungi in their roots.
They really act as an ultra-efficient extra root system supplying the plants with nutrients and trace elements to add to what they absorb themselves.
It is defined as a symbiotic relationship. This partnership is particularly valuable where growing conditions are difficult, for example on land that is likely to dry out from time to time.
Now that it is possible to synthesise these fungi and use them at planting time, arguably instead of fertiliser, enhanced growth rates can be expected.
Stop, think, where have I heard a story like this before?
Answer – Biological control of pests using nematodes.
In times past I have referred to products in the Nemasys range for the organic control of slugs, caterpillars, sawfly, chafer grubs, codlin moth, carrot fly, onion fly, ants and sciarid fly.
The organisms used are eelworms that exist in most soils (like mycorrhizal fungi) at low levels. Apply them to localised areas at a high concentration and they will “do the business”, so to speak.
The product from Frank P. Matthews is called “Tree Boost – the planting partner for fruit and ornamental trees”.
It does contain a bit of magnesium, calcium and trace elements.
When preparing the planting hole, dust the inside of the hole with the Tree Boost product, before filling in around the tree roots. It is not the only such product on the market. I tried Rootgrow last time.
Magic continued
In Beechgrove this year, we will be using Pea & Bean booster to improve our leguminous crops.
As usual, we intend to treat just half of each row to see if we can measure a significant difference in yield.
In other words, is it worth the effort? The treatment is available from some of the seed companies and it consists of a harmless bacteria in powder form which is used at sowing time.
How does the magic work?
You will already know that legumes (peas, beans, clover, alfalfa etc) grow little nodules on their roots occupied by friendly bacteria which can synthesise nitrogen from the air which is immediately available to the plant.
The booster material is a Rhizobium, a bacterium.
No other fertiliser should be required and some people claim to have increased yields by 30%.
Mind you, I always take these reports with a pinch of salt, they may have been achieved on very poor soil where the addition of the booster could make a huge difference.
For those of you on a well fed, regularly cultivated plot, the improvement may be marginal but you’ll never know if you don’t have a go!
For those of you away ahead of me, as one of the reports says – it does not feed the weeds unless you have a fine crop of clover in the plot.