Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] mycorrhizal fungi native in the soil

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: NAFEX Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] mycorrhizal fungi native in the soil
  • Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:35:05 -0400

We used to have discussions here about whether it was helpful to add mycorrhizal fungi when planting. I tried it once or twice, but never did anything like a controlled experiment, and after a year or two I decided that if the stuff worked my garden ought to be well- innoculated, and shouldn't need new spores.

In the back, by my oaks, I've noticed a nice crop of Indian Pipes in recent years. It's a weird saprophytic flowing plant . . . or so I always thought. But I dug some up for a friend, and thought I'd research it a little on google. Apparently, it's not only a saphrophyte, but a parasite that--get this--tricks mycorrhizal fungi into giving it sugars derived from nearby photosynthetic plants.

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/oct2002.html

I'm pretty sure the backyard oaks can spare enough sugar to sustain a dozen little clumps of Indian Pipe, and it's sort of a fun plant to have around because it looks so odd. So I plan to leave it where it is. But I also sort of suspect there's plenty of wild mycorrhizal fungus in my soil.

Ginda
eastern MA
zone 6

p.s. after reading how the stuff grows, I doubt it transplants well. But I've already dug the clump up (with a lot of nearby soil) and I suppose it won't do any harm for her to plant it and see what happens. It's pretty much done for this year, just ripening its seeds. Maybe, even if the parent plant dies, some of the seeds will survive in her back yard.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page