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One of the most widespread wrong ideas in horticulture is that roots simply serve to anchor plants in the soil and suck up nutrients. This perspective leads to many mistakes, not the least of which is the overuse of “plant food”. I won’t go into any detail about the process of photosynthesis, but the gathering of solar energy by plant leaves is crucial for healthy soil. As a plant’s roots grow and push out into surrounding soil, they exude a thin layer of mucus which acts as a lubricant. This gel is rich in nutrients and provides nourishment for microbial...

As the use of biological methods for crop production and landscaping gains wider popularity, it seems some people view it as a some sort of rival to soil chemistry, which has dominated agriculture for several decades. To me, this is the wrong way to look at the issue. This need not be a contest between two different approaches to growing plants - it’s not biology looking to wipe out chemistry (or as some seem to see it, good versus evil). An intelligent perspective would be to blend together elements of both sciences in a way that provides the maximum benefits...

The more I learn about how soil and worms and fungi and bacteria and plants interact, and how their underground “systems” work, the more I realize how mistaken we are about so many things. Our intentions are good - we’re following prevailing soil chemistry advice given in textbooks, articles, and by crop advisors - but much of what we do for (or to) our plants and crops is horribly wrong. To understand the problems, first consider the natural cycle of plant-soil-microbial relationships which have evolved over millions of years )greatly, greatly, simplified). Leaf litter, dead plants, bird and animal droppings...

Most of the scientific research and widespread publicity about using mycorrhizal fungi to grow plants has been focused on food-type plants, but these beneficial organisms can be put to work equally well on ornamental plants. Just like food plants, many ornamentals have evolved a dependence on mycorrhizae and have largely lost the ability to efficiently uptake nutrients without the fungi on their roots. Without mycorrhizal fungi, we humans must take on the job of providing all the nourishment to fungi-less plants - usually by continuously applying “plant foods” that mostly wash right through the root zone into underground water supplies....

One of the benefits of mycorrhizae - the symbiotic linking of a plant root system with microscopic fungi - is the ability of the fungi to selectively regulate the uptake of elements from the surrounding soil. This is quite common knowledge among experienced soil restoration people, who routinely see transplants all die in “toxic” soils (mine tailings, etc.) unless mycorrhizal fungi are on the plant roots. In simple terms, the fungi seek out what is needed by the plant and block out what would be harmful. I’ve witnessed this first-hand at a Central Valley California farm where a market vegetable...