Why mycorrhizal fungi are very useful in planting.

What are mycorrhizal fungi?

Soil doesn’t just consist of material derived from underlying parent rocks and decayed plant matter and animals remains. It may surprise you to know that at least 90% of all plants depend on a group of fungi which live on their roots and increase their root capacity by up to 700 times! (Plant works, Kent.)So, if we add some mycorrhizal fungi to all our planting schemes, the soil, plants and ecosystem will all benefit. These fungi are relatively inexpensive to add, when compared to the whole cost of a scheme.

The addition of mycorrhizal fungi has an effect like a tonic given to plants, as they quickly enable the faster establishment of plant roots and that leads in turn to much healthier plant growth and plant establishment. Therefore, you can see the effect of adding the fungi within 1 year, by lusher growth on your larger, healthier, faster growing plants.

The plant groups that benefit the most from the addition of mycorrhizal fungi to their root space are;

Bare root roses.
Bare root trees.
Bare root whips.
All bare root plants are prone to transplant shock which can lead to poor establishment and weak early growth. The fungi reduce mortality and speed first year growth and establishment.

Specimen and root ball plants.
Most rootball plants have a poor root to shoot ratio due to intensive nursery production, but the addition of mycorrhizal fungi compensates for this by increasing root area and thus help the establishment of the plants.

On your next planting scheme consider asking for these fungi to be added at planting time. The cost of using these fungi is really only a fraction of the total planting costs and the investment is likely to be swiftly repaid by faster establishment of plants, lower mortality and fertiliser use can also be reduced, which tends to compensate for the cost of the fungi.

These fungi are most useful on difficult planting sites, where establishment could otherwise be slower than normal;brownfield sites, ex-arable farmland, ex-mining sites, and ex- landfill sites. With the use of mycorrhizal fungi, there are reduced plant mortality and enhanced growth rates. This is because contaminants on ex-landfill sites are also locked up by the fungi. (Without the use of mycorrhizal fungi, the effect of contaminants would be slower plant growth or death.)

Landvision will continue to specify use of mycorrhizal fungi on all sites, particularly on bare root planting schemes, for root ball trees and on difficult sites, where planting schemes need an extra helping hand. They are especially useful on bare root rose planting schemes, where first year old roses show remarkable growth rates and flowering due to their addition.
For more details visit;
www.plantworksuk.co.uk

Landvision.