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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon AT mindspring.com>
  • To: market-farming
  • Subject: Re: Sawdust as Mulch:
  • Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 16:11:12 -0500



>On Tue, 1 Feb 2000 13:36:55 EST, SCook21809 AT aol.com wrote:

>> Soil Life!

The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot be dealt
with as a whole with any detail by any one person, and at the same
time it plays so important a part in the soil economy that it must be
studied.
--Sir E. John Russell "The Micro-organisms of the Soil", 1923

More on plant-available nutrients from soil fungi:

From: niemirab AT student.msu.edu (Brendan A. Niemira)
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Subject: Re: Mycorhizzae vs. Fertilizer
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 11:04 est
Organization: Michigan State University

> If a person was to isolate a fungus that would form a
> mycorhizzae relationship with an agronomic crop, would
> innoculation of that fungus into the field (once it
> became established) be an effective method for reducing
> the need for commercial fertilization? Wouldn't the
> "strength/abundance" of the fungi grow exponentially with
> the passing of years?

For agronomic crops, you're talking about vesicular arbuscular
mycorrhizae (VAM), a symbiotic endomycorrhizal fungus. These are
ubiquitous anyway, and not very host-specific, so there is very little
need to inoculate the field in order to introduce them. The big trick
is getting them to colonize your crop plant to such an extent that
fertilizer inputs can be reduced. You can a) build up the population
in the soil such that even moderately active fungi result in heavy
coloniazation, b) put something in the soil to stimulate the activity
of smaller populations to get heavy colonization.

Crop rotations have been shown to have a definite impact on the
population dynamics of VAM, and work is currently being done (by me,
among others) to determine how the different crop plants
differentially select for certain species of VAM among all that are
availible in the soil.

Other workers have shown that certain natural, plant-produced
chemicals can stimulate the existing VAM to higher levels of activity.
These chemicals were originally derived from red clover, a popular
sequence in crop rotations. This may shed some light on why rotations
are effective w/regard to VAM.

Good luck.

Brendan A. Niemira | "You know your Shelley, Bertie."
Dept. Botany and Plant Path | "Oh, am I?"
Michigan State University | P.G. Wodehouse
niemirab AT student.msu.edu | *The Code of the Woosters*
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

<><><><><>



Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm
http://metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
http://metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
http://metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO
lflondon AT mindspring.com london AT metalab.unc.edu




  • Re: Sawdust as Mulch:, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 02/01/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Sawdust as Mulch:, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 02/01/2000

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