Actively encouraging Mycelium

[Nature's Babe]

Seing evidence of mycelium in my garden now, their little friuts are popping up,( eg beans in loo rolls filled with home grown compost, popping through with little white funghi ) making their presence briefly known, they are in my home made compost and spreading through the soil, what benefits do I expect, greater plant resistence to stress from drought, and some diseases, better plant vigour. Here is a link on the symbiotic relationship of plants and mycelium

http://www.biocult.org/index.php?option ... &Itemid=54

http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/mycova.html

http://www.mrcashop.org/mushroom_shop/i ... Mycorrhiza

[Colin_M]

Hi NB, yes, these Mycorrhizal funghi are useful in all sorts of ways. Apart from all the well known examples, I remember some research being done in Spain to test whether they helped plants take up water in drought conditions (which they did).

I'm sure you've already seen it but you can now buy small bags of material inoculated with the organisms. One supplier provides a few different versions - see here.

I've used these in the past and my crops have done well. However I never did any proper comparisons (eg. one row with, one row without). Let us know how you get on with your "home grown" varieties.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Colin, thank you for that link. I actually incorporated some local woodland soil into my compost to kick start it, and innoculate seedlings, so far so good. Also the compost heap backs onto an untilled strip of wild wooded land bordering the farmland, so its natural and local. It definitely helps during drought, as the plants get an extension of root exchange with the mycelium, both for water and nutrients, the mycelium in exchange get what the plants manufacture from sunlight, which they can't access. it benefits both.

[Colin_M]

NB has already been making use of naturally occurring Mycorrhizal funghi.

After I'd dug one patch of my allotment this autumn, I came across this in the soil. Looks like a decaying piece of wood or stalk and had a good coating of white mycelium, plus several threads.

[Nature's Babe]

Great pic Colin, the mycelium help decompositiom of the wood too. I should snap some of mine, their fruits are appearing all over my garden now, coming up through the straw mulch, and hidden in quiet corners. In the hedgerows locally, very autumnal, i saw some field mushrooms and puffballs today while gathering chestnuts.

[Johnboy]

Hi NB,
My lunch today was a slice of an enormous Puff Ball. When it went into the pan it was nearly 9" diameter. Really tasty with Bacon and egg and some home made Bread and butter.
I have a very old cider apple tree ( A Knightwick Bitter around two hundred years old) and it obviously has a symbiotic relationship with Horse Mushrooms because there is a ring of mushrooms right around the tree about 10' from the trunk. It is a race between me and the Mushroom Flies who gets there first and sadly I generally lose.
When I win they are really tasty and these are normally about 8" in diameter.
I had a sort of count of fungi on the plot this morning and I really lost count at 35 different varieties and there are certainly far more than that.
As you say it is their time of year just at present.
JB.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Johnboy , good to see you posting again, your tree sounds fascinating? Like you - its a race against the other critters Would it be the right time to truffle hunt too? There are lots of hazels around here. The chestnuts are better than last year !

[Colin_M]

My lunch today was a slice of an enormous Puff Ball. When it went into the pan it was nearly 9" diameter. Really tasty with Bacon and egg and some home made Bread and butter.

Sounds excellent.

Out of interest, is there a trick to catching puffballs before they are full of spores - or do you just wait for the dust to settle, then cook them? I'd imagine they would "explode" if cut into once at the mature stage, but 9" in diameter sounds well and truly ready to go off!

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
The answer to that one is that the friend who collected the Puff Ball is an expert in all forms of fungus and is a Chartered Forester with about 60 years experience. In the field of fungus I leave everything up to him and if I do gather any mushrooms I shoot over to his place and he gives everything the once over for me before they are committed to the pot.
I must say he has supplied me with some weird and wonderful mushrooms over the years.
JB.

[Nature's Babe]

We have a lot of fungi round here Johnboy, but I don't know of any expert
to give them the OK, I can recognise a chanterelle, penny bun, field mushroom, ink cap, cauliflower fungus and chickem in the woods but after that I am lost. Can I borrow your expert friend ?

[Johnboy]

Hi NB,
Yes he certainly is a gem! He is also quite knowledgeable on symbiotic
relationships and I intend to pick his brain to get to know more about
the subject.
I will pass on anything I manage to glean to you even if you may already be aware of what I find out. This way other people may gather the information if they have a mind.
JB.

[Nature's Babe]

Thank you Johnboy, always ready to learn. I do know one way to spread symbiosis to an established tree, plant other small plants within its rootzone area with rootgrow underneath their roots, the mycelium then migrate from the plants roots to the trees roots.