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When I was first introduced to the concept of growing plants with biological methods nearly ten years ago, it was an exciting moment.From the perspective of someone raised on a farm, I could immediately appreciate the appeal of cutting back on expensive fertilizers and chemicals. And from the perspective of a business entrepreneur, I saw the potential for a billion-dollar new market - one that could some day rival the soil-chemistry industry.Why, if ten percent of the farms in Kansas converted over to biology-based techniques, or even just one percent, suppliers of beneficial fungi and bacteria could make huge amounts...

As another growing season is underway and my tomato plants begin climbing upward - on 10 ft. high netting for the indeterminate types and in wire cages for the bush-types - it is interesting to observe the effects of mycorrhizae on their root systems. The combination of very small amounts of dry organic fertilizer, plus the addition of volcanic trace minerals and mycorrhizal fungi spores produces tomato plants that look and perform considerably different from typical garden tomatoes. My goal is for the plants to not lack any essential major, minor, or trace element. A chemically-oriented soil expert would say...

In past newsletters, I've described how mycorrhizal fungi add a certain "intelligence" to the root zone. This beneficial fungi colonizes the surrounding soil to bring nutrients and moisture to their host plants, guards roots against pathogens, and fluffs up heavy clay to admit oxygen. However, there is another aspect to these complex organisms that is worth exploring; the movement of nutrients not only from the soil to host plants, but also between plants. A few quotes: 1. From The Growing EDGE magazine: "...fungal mats connect plants of different species, transferring substances produced by one plant to other, possibly even unrelated,...

Our newsletters have often explained how mycorrhizal fungi attach to plant roots and bring great amounts of needed nutrients to the plant, functioning like millions of extra feeder roots. These well-nourished plants become more disease resistant and produce higher yields or more flowers. A less obvious benefit is reduced insect attacks. In our grow testing, we can often tell the mycorrhizal plants from control plants from some distance away, not just by size but also by a difference in leaf damage. This same sort of difference can be seen by comparing plants fertilized with slow-release fertilizer versus those given fast-acting...

Last spring, I offered to send sample jars of our new MycoMinerals product (volcanic minerals with mycorrhiza spores) to home gardeners to test. One of the participants in Michigan sent back a glowing review, but I had to chuckle when he said how terribly difficult it was to follow my instructions not to add any fertilizer during the entire growing season. It seems that serious gardeners want topamper theirgardens so much that a biological approach, where one relies on microbial action to "feed" plants,seems like neglect. The chemical industry has done a remarkable job of convincing people to more or...