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Bob Morris

Soil fungi good for plant root health

BOB MORRIS
November 13, 2012 - 12:20 am
 

Question: What are your thoughts on mycorrhizae? I bought some a while back from T&J Enterprises out of Washington state, and the chiles seemed to do really well. Is it an aid or just my imagination?

I have had some experience with mycorrhizae in the past, and if the soil is void of these critters, then plants will definitely improve if some are added. But if the soil already contains the right kind of mycorrhizae, then it won't do much.

Mycorrhizae should not cost too much, and they go a long way in your soil because they multiply under good growing conditions.

These are fungi that live in and around plant roots. In the past, they were normally associated with better uptake of phosphorus, but now they have had many other things attributed to them.

I always like to take a little bit of soil from where a plant was growing just for the mycorrhizae content. That little bit of soil will have enough mycorrhizae to inoculate your soil.

Bob Morris is a professor emeritus in horticulture with the University of Nevada and can be reached at extremehort@aol.com. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com. For more gardening advice, check the Home section of Thursday's Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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