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market-farming - Re: Soil Fungi Critical to Organic Success

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  • From: sgilman <sgilman AT netheaven.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Soil Fungi Critical to Organic Success
  • Date: Sat, 26 May 01 22:58:41 -0400




RE: Soil Fungi Critical to Organic Success
also at: www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may01/fungi0501.htm

Mycorrhizal fungi have been known to be extremely valuable soil
colonizers for a long time now. They work symbiotically with plant root
systems and in exchange for carbohydrates provided by plants through root
exudates their hyphae pipelines extend far and wide through the soil to
capture and transport soil nutrients (especially locked-up phosphorus) as
well as pumping deeper down water reserves back to the plants. They are
effective disease suppressors, competing well with plant pathogens. They also
bind soil particles together and help create porous aggregates needed by soil
organisms and roots alike and promote soil oxygenation, drainage and moisture
holding capacity. Further, numerous crops and fruits actually require
mycorrhizal associations to function fully.
The ARS researchers seem to have things backwards, however.
Selling mycorrhizae-rich plug transplants to inoculate soils only is
effective if there is a suitable soil habitat to support fungal growth
already in place and if there is, most likely mycorrhizae will be there too.
It¹s a bit like buying ladybugs and having them all fly away because there is
no supportive habitat in place to provide the room and board they need to
function. While fungal associations are prolific in humusy forest soils and
many trees and shrubs depend on it, most crop land has become dominated by
bacterial systems as row cropping and tillage further chops up and destroys
the hyphal strands. Chemical fungicides used by conventional farmers are
especially destructive to mycorrhizae and so are the herbicides, fertilizers
and other commonly applied biocides they use.
It has long been known that rotating portions of the field or
garden periodically back into sod replenishes the habitat for beneficial
fungi and helps balance soil fertility. Composts made with well decomposed
shredded bark, leaves or wood chips are very rich in beneficial fungi. Wild
plants, dandelions especially, provide an important over-wintering habitat
for dormant fungi, so they can recolonize the new crops the following season.
Biostrip intercropping and other farmscaping methods can help maintain
permanent healthy and vigorous mycorrhizae populations. As in ³Field of
Dreams², Build It and They Will Come.....

Steve Gilman
Ruckytucks Farm






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