Mycorrhizae

[Menchhofer]

Any out there innoculating with mycorrhizae? If so, what particular methods are currently available for this application. Which method works best for you?
Are some processes better than others?

 

[treeseer]

I pick pisolithus puffballs and stir em into compost and aged pinebark. Swing a pick into the ground, crack up the soil and fill the holes. Water it in with a jet from the garden hose.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You can mix it with water and soil inject or surface apply. On or under chip/compost beds seems smart.
In nature, spores just blow around in the wind and land where they land. If you create a soil environment conducive to fungi, the fungi will come. Loosen up the soil, add compost and mulch, water during drought, and other stuff like that.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

I think mike has the correct idea,healthy soil = healthy funghi [mycorrhizae]= healthy tree.

 

[Tree Wizard]

Ecto-mycorrhizae can be soil injected or surface applied because they are about .2 microns in size and will filter down through the soil particles. They are naturally produced above ground and disseminated by wind.

Endo-mycorrhizae spores are produced in the soil and are photo-degradable. Most are killed after 15 minutes of sunlight exposure. Endo spores are 70 to 200 microns in size. Soil openings are 1.5 microns to 45 microns in size. Endo spores must be placed into the soil – they won’t filter down. Because of their size and being produced below soil surface, it takes a very long time for endos to naturally return to disturbed soils.

We use liquid soil injection methods for most of our mycorrhizae applications. We also do some dry applications in connection with vertical mulching or radial trenching.

Knowing which species take ectos and which take endos is also very important.

 

[Husky288XP]

When at a Tech Update at Bartlett, Bruce told us that mycorhizae fungi in for instance a Plant Health Care package only had if any 7% viable spores. They discouraged us to use it because of the lack of viable spores. They ran a test in the lab with a lot of big name fertilizer suppliers etc and the results were shocking. But, I can only take it for what it is since, Bartlett produces their own fertilizer and bio-stims.

 

[treeseer]

Yeah I wonder just how the % of live spores is calculated; how many dead ones did they count?

Still I share the skepticism on the products re shelf life. I collect pufballs (Pisolithus and spread the spores in the mix I vertimulch with. That way I know they're fresh.