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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] life cycle of mycorrhizae

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  • From: "Kathy Moore" <anichinimoore@hotmail.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] life cycle of mycorrhizae
  • Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:11:21 -0500

What do you think of the practice of routinely burning fields of straw (crop residue) and to control cedars? People here believe burning helps the soil. I think it cause respiratory problems and kills off mycorrhizae, etc. Their argument is Native Americans burned the prairie to create grass for the buffalo. Is there literature I could read that shows alternatives to burning? Are there other alternatives I might try to educate others about?
Kathy Moore


From: Soilsecrets@aol.com
Reply-To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Livingontheland] life cycle of mycorrhizae
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:12:19 EDT

There's a lot of mystery to the Mycorrhizal relationship that plants have,
resulting in many misconceptions and misinformation. The Pacific Northwest
Rainforest is a cool forest that favors fungi for the decomposition of organic
matter, which is slow process. Bacterial Humification is still part of the
system but is not as active as the fungal decomposition. Consequently, the
total amount of humus or Humic substances that accumulate in the Northwest
forest floor is less per 100,000 calories of biomass recycling than will be found
in the Great Plains Tall Grass Prairie. I other words if you have exactly
the same amount of organic biomass when comparing the calorie value of the
biomass, the hot grassland Ecotone will favor a bacterial Humification resulting
in more humus than the NW Rain Forest. Therefore the large fungal network
that Marty speaks of are actually more likely to be Saprophytic fungi involved
with the decomposition of woody lignin parts of dead organic matter and can
be seen by the naked eye during certain times of the year. The mycorrhizal
fungi for the most part are very small and not so visible and are more
involved with feeding their host plant water and mineral nutrients. Mycorrhizae
feeding tubes or filaments do not venture far from the point of articulation
with the host plant roots.

When soils are destroyed by construction, fire or other events the
mycorrhizae will return as do the native plants, but the process is very slow. For
that reason, viable inoculation products that have been studied by universities
have found consistent benefits by using these products in landscapes, golf
courses, tree farms and even on Organic Farms that have been well managed and
organic for decades. We also see the same thing happen when we put a pure
biologically viable humus into a Pacific Northwest Soil that you would think is
already rich in humus, huge benefits are derived.

Michael M. Melendrez


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