Mycorrhizae FAQ's

[efisakov]

I keep on adding Mycorrhizae to my soil along with a good fungus, what can I do to protect them? In the forest the Mycorrhizae can survive up to 2 years.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Siberian

How did the BiotaMax inoculation at seed starting work out for you Ray? Any difference from your results previous years sans the BM?

I've used chamomile tea with good success in damping off prevention. I'm sure not nearly as beneficial as BM in regards to synergies, but it has worked for prevention.

Didn't have any health problems with the Biotamax inoculated seedlings and I have used Biotamax in both peat based seed starting mixes and my own creations (long story and long thread). It was interesting though how plant growth was effected by the addition of worm castings also. The only question in my mind is what happens to seedling growth with worm castings alone vs. worm castings plus Biotamax. Another experiment for another time.

The few times I've had damping off problems was when I used a standard sterile peat based seed starting mix and I wasn't using Trichoderma or any other beneficial inoculant then since I didn't know anything about them at the time. I've never used chamomile tea, but I did use a mulch of a silicate which is a well accepted method of deterring damping off pathogens from entering and establishing themselves in the soil. I've used coarse sand, but more often bird grit and never had a problem with damping off.

Trichoderma offers a range of benefits also that interest me.

From Cornell U.

Mycoparasitism
Antibiosis
Competition for nutrients or space
Tolerance to stress through enhanced root and plant development
Solubilization and sequestration of inorganic nutrients
Induced resistance
Inactivation of the pathogen’s enzymes

Originally Posted by efisakov

I keep on adding Mycorrhizae to my soil along with a good fungus, what can I do to protect them? In the forest the Mycorrhizae can survive up to 2 years.

You can't do much about Mycorrhizae with cultivated annual crops which is the subject of the video Mycorrhizal Applications: Working With Cover Crops in post #11. It's easier and cheaper just to inoculate each year like the man says.
Mycorrhizae need living roots to survive and reproduce year after year. The forest is full of many perennials, grasses, trees and other plants which is why they survive.

[efisakov]

Thanks, Ray.

[RayR]

Mycorrhizal Fungi: The World’s Biggest Drinking Straws And Largest Unseen Communication System

[ddsack]

Thanks for the great link, Ray. I've never taken the time to really understand mycorrhiza, and this article from a scholarly source answers many of my questions. I'm a skeptic and tend to discount info posted at product sales sites, so nice to have this.

[RayR]

As you consume all the scientific literature, the continuing discoveries of the importance of Mycorrhizae as well as other microbes to plant nutrition and pathogen and pest resistance is even more fantastic than the info posted at product sales sites.