Mycorrhizae innoculations

[Lee Winger]

Any one got any info?

 

Different methods of application/innoculation, and any associated problems..

 

Cheers

 

Yeah big waste of time, better off cultivating whats already native and present, foreign strains of fungi , lead me to thinking about Cane toads, and all other introduced blunders ...

 

And an absolute waste of time adding endomychorrizas , research has shown endomychorrizas cannot be cultivated from spore.....

Edited March 18, 2009 by Lee Winger

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Mycology - Mycorrhizas - Habitat Rehabilitation AM fungi have diverse attributes: they increase plant uptake of nonlabile minerals and water from soil, aggregate soils, increase the carbon and complexity of carbon passing from plant to soil, and change the pattern of root development, among other factors. Increased uptake of minerals will lead to faster rates of growth of responsive plants in mineral poor soils. Aggregation of soil will lead to faster rates of water penetration, maintenance of water holding capacity and aeration of soil. Changes in the distribution of roots will increase the benefit attributable to AM fungi, and determine the location of survival propagules of AM fungi in the soil profile. Altogether, presence of AM fungi will initiate increased mineral movement and establish a cycling of minerals between the soil and host plant.

 

AM fungi influence the composition of the plant community. Nonmycorrhizal plant species tend to be suppressed in the presence of the fungi. However, complex fungal communities appear to promote greater complexity in mycorrhizal plant communities, that as a consequence also produce greater plant biomass. In other words, more plant species survive and increased total organic carbon is fixed. This is despite the cost to the plant of supplying organic carbon to the fungal symbiont. The mechanisms underlying these influences are unclear. However, the data indicate that the complexity of natural plant communities will be attained much more rapidly if a diverse suite of AM fungi are included in the outplanting stage. These attributes of AM fungi indicate that AM fungi must be considered during the restoration of severely disturbed habitats.

 

 

Deliberate inoculation of seedlings or soil is necessary to ensure the establishment and survival of AM fungi. Natural dispersal of these fungi into highly disturbed areas is slow, and the fungi that disperse may not necessarily provide greatest benefit to the plant community. Further, deliberate inoculation allows the use of fungi which have other roles in the community. For instance, small animals that utilise fungal sporocarps in their diet will return much readily if a food source has become available. Thus the complex habitats in natural ecosystems may be established much more rapidly.