Re: [gardeners] Re: Mycorrhiza questions...
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 13:05:27 -0600
>
>Mine said that mycorrhiza are specific to species of plants.
>For example, Don in CA is selling the fungi for use with tomatoes --
>he has a strain that will grow and work with tomatoes. It may grow
>and work with a few other plants, too. But there is no general
>purpose mycorrhiza that is the answer to everyone's problems or that
>will work with every plant. The last time I read Don's postings they
>were testing their strain on many plants but it was sort of a shotgun
>type approach -- there's no way to predict which plants will form a
>symbiotic relationship with a particular strain.
I thought the substance was specific to specific plants, having looked up
the web page cited by Doreen Leonard last summer. I have a pretty good
reference library, but I'm unable to find a definition for microrrhiza.
For some reason I have a cognitive association between it and mycelium. Do
you have a definition for micorrhiza? (I see I've been spelling it with
three r's and you're not. Maybe that's the trouble)
>
>I have real questions about the usefulness of using any form of these
>fungi in an organic garden such as yours -- one in which tomatoes are
>planted in the same location year after year. My own anecdotal
>experience is that tomatoes replanted year after year in the same
>soil grow exceptionally well. My guess is that part of that result
>comes from soil microbes that become established and flourish year
>after year -- not necessarily just a single type of fungus but a
>balance of many types of organisms.
>
>Liz
>
Excellent point. Thanks, Margaret, who still would like a definition if
you can find one.