Mycorrhiza - adding fungus to the soil

moneyistooshorttomention · 2 October 2015 at 8:32AM

Still working on improving the soil in my garden - as I'm using it to grow food.

What are peoples experiences of adding mycorrhiza to the soil?

Who are the best supplier to use to obtain it?

RAS · 2 October 2015 at 10:24AM

Depends what you want to use it for. It actually inhibits growth in some fruit bushes.

moneyistooshorttomention · 2 October 2015 at 12:57PM

Oh...

Which fruit bushes would it NOT be an idea with - and am wondering why...

I do basically have it in mind for fruit bushes/fruit trees and rhubarb.

As I read it - it seemed to say that the root system of plants treated that way would be much more extensive/better able to pick up minerals, etc from the soil (and thereby transmit those minerals to me when I eat the food) - and that sounded like "Its all good to me" - as I'm working on the basis of "I feed the soil and the soil feeds me" (ie courtesy of having read how much of the goodness has been stripped out of soil that has been used for decades or more and hence we are all being poorly-nourished and "no wonder its considered the norm to be ill once you get to middle aged onwards").

I've got no intention of being worse-nourished if I can help it because of this life being in the 20th/21st century......and hence trying to grow my food to "normal standard" (as it was in previous centuries).

Didn't know it might "go in the other direction"....

RAS · 2 October 2015 at 2:23PM

http://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/latest-news/news/2015/7/fruit-growers-trial-success-at-tatton.aspx

The left hand basket was treat with Mycorrhizial bacteria the top one with wool compost.. Cannot remember which one was the baseline - no treatment - but think it was the middle one. Similar results with currants.

Davesnave · 3 October 2015 at 4:56AM

I used it while planting a beech hedge, but I ran out 2/3 of the way through.

Made not a scrap of difference.

I also think you are misinformed about life in previous eras, when there were fewer varieties of fruit, lower yields and life expectancy was shorter.

If you want to replicate those times, which were indeed part-responsible for the dark crumbly soil found in old gardens, you could install an outdoor earth closet and encourage the local populace to use it freely.....

Alternatively, there's comfrey, which will pull minerals up from deep in the sub-soil layer and store/redistribute them for you.

moneyistooshorttomention · 3 October 2015 at 8:39AM

One does wonder how come (aged) cow and horse manure is deemed A Good Idea - but nothing is heard about the human variety:rotfl:.

I've had my eye out for comfrey plants since moving here. They were there in abundance back Home - but here...nah...and I've tried planting a few plug plants of them in a couple of locations, but no luck to date at them taking.

I'd like some in my garden - but its not big enough and I suspect I'm going to run out of room for my food plants as it is (even once I've got the money to do some major reorganisation the place needs - ie tarmac ripping up).

Hence thinking about mycorrhiza....

I'm also wondering about rock dust ....

EDIT;....and now I'm getting friendly with people who are farmers wives and ride horses....hmm....that's got me thinking re the residue from their horses...

bouicca21 · 3 October 2015 at 9:32AM

Residue from horses is just what you need for the rhubarb, but make sure it's well rotted.

When I was but a slip of a girl, the next door neighbours who had never had a garden before, were keen to share our rhubarb crop. My dad gave them a crown, helped them plant it with an abundance of said residue. The rhubarb grew strong and well, but they still wanted sone of ours. Why asked my Mum? Well we can't eat possibly something grown in horse !!!!!!, was the reply.

Davesnave · 3 October 2015 at 9:51AM

You don't find comfrey plants for the garden in hedgerows, as they'll not be the sterile variety Bocking 14, so they'll seed everywhere. Only that clone is garden-worthy.

If you get one maturish plant, you can make hundreds from it; it's that easy to grow, anywhere in the UK. Your area is no different

Although you wouldn't want hundreds, half a dozen really wouldn't take up much room, or if you knew a bit of waste ground, you could stick some in and grow it off-site, to harvest at your leisure.;) I have some at the other end of my field, where it competes with grasses 2' high. I put it into a big water barrel and it gives me fertilizer for the hedge I'm growing there.

I wouldn't think too long about rock dust, as it's basically crushed-up granite, which is what I buy from my builder's yard. It's cheaper by the tonne...about £60 at the last purchase. On ebay, in small packets, it's considerbly more!

EDIT: I forgot to add that the fungi that prompted this thread in the first place will arrive anyway, as they are naturally-occurring. They just won't be present in such large quantities at first.

Mycorrhiza - adding fungus to the soil

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