News

The most frequent articles about mycorrhizal fungi deal with their ability to improve the nutrient and moisture uptake for host plants, which are obviously important benefits. However, we can't overlook the powerful physical effects that the fungi have on the surrounding soil after they colonize a plant's root system. After the fungi send their many millions of microscopic root-threads (hyphae) out into the soil, acting like foraging hair roots, the effect on clay soil is to separate "stacked" clay platelets. This allows air to penetrate deep into the root zone and permits water to drain through without causing soggy anaerobic...

After my last newsletter about organic methods, a subscriber wrote the following: "We certainly need to go organic. However, the organic label is now used for industrially farmed produce which merely contains no herbicides or insecticides. The result is food very poor in nutrients and with a high water content as well as being selected for keeping and transport rather than flavour or nutrition ... Giant food producers are totally uninterested in soil health." My newsletter rant was mostly about the disappearance of good flavors in the produce aisle of supermarkets - that varieties were being bred entirely for qualities...

A recent newspaper quote... "Organic agriculture is both the fastest growing and the most profitable sector of the ag industry. Consumer demand for healthier, environmentally sound food products is skyrocketing...American shoppers spent more than $51 billion on natural and organic products in 2005, a 9.1 percent increase over the previous year. Wal-Mart's decision to start carrying organic produce is sending shock and opportunity waves through the industry." For farmers, I believe the key word in the quote is "opportunity." But, "going organic" means more than growing a beard and spreading manure instead of NPK fertilizer - there are many new...

Last week, I bought a bag of carrots at the local supermarket and steamed a few of them for dinner. After dinner, I tossed the rest of the bag onto the compost pile. Carrots are normally one of my favorite veggies, but these had virtually none of the tasty characteristics of garden carrots. They looked the same, but my one-word description of their flavor would have to be "Gack!". This is just part of a disturbing trend for supermarket produce - the varieties are being selected more for qualities such as appearance, disease resistance, ease of harvest, earliness, shippability, and...

A subscriber in Wisconsin writes: "Enjoy your newsletter and appreciate your product. You stated 'When the right types of mycorrhizal fungi are matched up with the right host plants...' Perhaps in your next edition you can explain what the matches are and how one achieves them." Well, I'll try. The most basic match is with Endo or Ecto-type fungi, and in very general terms most of the plants on Earth, more than 90%, match with Endo types. Ecto-type fungi match with pines, oaks, birches, and a few other plants. There are also specialized types of mycorrhizal fungi - orchids have...