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In the eight-plus years that I've been studying and marketing mycorrhizal fungi inoculants, some basic facts have become stuck in my mind. The beneficial fungi are not just a nice little extra for plants. Millions of years of evolution together have resulted in plants that need the fungi to efficiently uptake nutrients; and, fungi that cannot survive without host plants. From a function standpoint, the symbiotic plant/fungiare is more a single organism than two separate ones. This fact should be the foundation element of both agriculture and horticulture. Plants can obviously be grown by overdosing their inefficient roots with increasingly-expensive...

When a seed sprouts, that event does not go unnoticed in nature. As a first tiny root emerges and begins to poke its way into the soil, an outer mucus layer gives off chemical signals that announces its presence to surrounding organisms. These other organisms may have been lying dormant for months just waiting for such a root signal. One way or another, most of these other living things see new roots as food. Some, such as nematodes, burrow into the roots and damage the plant. Others graze on roots directly. Still others, including many types of bacteria and fungi,...

During the past few decades, we have begun to understand a little more about how plants really function, but as with most new knowledge it will be some time, yet, before it has much effect on current practices. Established habits are... well, established. Looking at the broad picture, nearly all farmers, gardeners, and landscapers have been taught to think of soil as being a mixture of ingredients. Under this view, if you make the ingredients right, then your plants will perform well. This is a chemistry-oriented approach, along the lines of baking a cake, and is simple to understand. A...

During the past few decades, we have begun to understand a little more about how plants really function, but as with most new knowledge it will be some time, yet, before it has much effect on current practices. Established habits are... well, established. Looking at the broad picture, nearly all farmers, gardeners, and landscapers have been taught to think of soil as being a mixture of ingredients. Under this view, if you make the ingredients right, then your plants will perform well. This is a chemistry-oriented approach, along the lines of baking a cake, and is simple to understand. A...

Most of our newsletters deal with biological elements in soil, especially mycorrhizal fungi and the symbiotic partnerships that exist between plants, fungi, and bacteria. We also make disparaging comments about the misguided (in our opinion) emphasis on soil chemistry. However, to clarify, our real concern with chemistry is mostly about the excessive use of macronutrients- NPK fertilizers that contain only a few major elements. The application of these incomplete"plant foods" year after year to croplands and gardens can cause harmful salt buildups and depletion of important minor and trace elements. Deep soils rich in mineral elements do have a substantial...