News

These are exciting times for soil microbiologists. The value of their research on soil-dwelling microbes is beginning to be recognized. The potential usefulness of the tiny critters they have been studying for decades is finally starting to be appreciated by people outside of laboratories, plus the "Age of Soil Chemistry" from the 1950's is no longer looking like such a great concept. It is also a confusing time for bio-scientists, who are more geared toward writing up study results with the elegant precision appropriate for publication in academic journals (motto: "eschew common words") than toward explaining product-usage details to dirt...

The mycorrhizae linkage between plants and soil fungi varies greatly. Some types of plants do not use the fungi for nutrient uptake while other plants have trouble even surviving without mycorrhizae. Clearly, the evolutionary process over millions of years has led different plants down differing paths, and bio-growers should be aware of their plants’ needs. Based on our company’s experiments, grower feedback and published research, some of the most dependent plants are (in no particular order): Grapes, roses, melons, potatoes, beans, squash, cherries, plums, peaches, alfalfa, oaks, pines, blackberries, onions, garlic, citrus, chrysanthemums, lilies, asparagus, bananas, strawberries, turf grass, eggplant,...

I find that many of our customers believe that the introduction of mycorrhizal fungi to their plant root systems is adding an "extra" benefit - something like a new and improved fertilizer. It's not. Actually, a biological approach to growing healthy and productive plants is simply trying to copy normal and natural methods that have evolved over millions of years. Mycorrhizal fungi are a key element in an overall ecosystem, as described in earlier newsletters (see the Archive section at our website - www.bio-organics.com). Most notably the fungi greatly enhance and regulate the uptake of nutrient and moisture by plant...

When I first got involved with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi several years ago and realized what these microorganisms could do for agriculture, I was wildly enthusiastic about the marketing prospects. After all, here was a natural method that promised to grow high-yielding, disease-resistant plants without contaminating water supplies, without having to apply heavy doses of expensive fertilizer, and without depleting our food-producing soils. At the time, I thought, “Wow - If just 5% of the corn farmers in Kansas convert to biology-based methods, it will be a billion-dollar market! How will suppliers ever be able to propagate enough of the fungi...

There is some debate about how many elements are really, really, essential to good plant health. Growers with a chemistry orientation always focus on the macro elements - NPK - which are indeed needed in relative large amounts. Some more advanced chem-growers also pay attention to minor elements - calcium, iron, magnesium, etc. - which are needed in lesser amounts. Probably not one in ten thousand ever worries about trace elements, believing that they are either not as important or are hopefully in the soil already. The critical need fortrace elements in a plant’s diet has been well documented, and...