mrtree

Y.es of course "free" is not an absolute but rather a relative term in this case. Labour is always an issue amongst other costs. "Cheap, simple, effective" exactly!!!

The introduction of commercial myco packs, or other microorganisms should be considered in terms of adding nonnative organisms to an environment. Perhaps commercial products are adding species that are non-native or not of a strain suited to the environment? IS there also a possibilty of adding (dangerous) unknown organisms with these commercial packs? Think about the transmission of prions causing BSE between, and within, species. Will one day we do the same with commercially prepared microorganisms? Since we should be thinking about using locally adapted organisms, why not make our own? Arborist have access to huge amounts of wood chips. By mixing composted and fresh woodchips, of numerous species, and spreading these on the forest floor you will get an innoculation of organisms over time. If the forest floor is raked and the chips are laid over a screen that is laid on bare soil, the chips will be easily retrievable. Further the raked litter can also be incorporated into the chips. The use of composted and fresh chips will allow basido- and asci- mycetes to thrive as well as organism not from the Fungi kingdom. The addition of easily "composted" materials such as grass, oats, bran, horse feed etc. will further expand the range of species that innoculate the mix. Large quantities of chips can be produced this way. They are then available for introduction to soils, planting holes or innoculants for woodchip rings. By creating these innoculated woodchips as close as possible to their intended "home" you are adding locally adapted and perhaps micro-site specific oganisms, not only mycorrhizae. A "free" and biologically method to help trees (when needed).

This thread shows the lack of thinking about how trees grow naturally. Trees don't need innoculations of mycorrhizae if they are planted in healthy soils (mine tailings are not healthy soils). A few thoughts. 1) If trees are grown in nursery soil and are B&B they are likely already infected with mycos 2) seedlings grown in sterile soilless mix may not have myco relations but they can occur by spores in the air 3) if you are adding myco packs to help planted trees you need to think about the soils first 3a) if your soil is lacking mycos then adding commerically produced mycos is wasting money. If the soil does not have myco's then it has major problems that need to be solved 3b) if the soils are healthy then by definition they have myco's already and adding more is not going to be productive 4) healthy soils contain a variety of mycos and other organisms, Not only are they many species but likely they are well suited to the site. 5) if soil is not healthy you need to think about how to make it healthy. Consider aeration, introduction of organic matter, particularly composted and new woodchips as they contain complex (lignin and cellulose) organic matter, introduction of soil microbes and higher organisms and creation of a functioning soil. 6) if you are adding myco's to unhealthy soils how will they support themselves in the long term? In urban yards where every scrap of organic matter is raked and removed there is likely little use to add myco's since they will not last long 7) if you are concerned about innoculating new trees with mycos you can add a mixture of composted and new woodchips and a couple of shovel fulls of soil from below a healthy tree to the planting hole. 8) commercial myco packs may contain more fragments of hyphae than viable spores The bottom line is healthy soils do not need commercially produced myco innoculations