MYCORRHIZAE
ake a teaspoon and scoop some soil from
the ground. You are holding a teeming
metropolis right there: around a billion individual organisms, most of which you can’t
see with the naked eye and all busily at
work in complex, symbiotic relationships
about which we know almost nothing.
Garden soil could be described as the final
frontier. We know as little about what goes
on under our feet as we do about the outer
reaches of the galaxy or the deep ocean floor.
Soil scientists are like modern day explorers on a voyage of discovery, never knowing
what they’ll find next, and every new revelation causes us to rethink our view of how
plants interact with the world around them.
One seismic reassessment of how we view
the subterranean world of plants has come
with the discovery of a huge group of microorganisms known as mycorrhizal fungi,
microscopic mushrooms able to literally plug
in plants to the soil like an electric cable.
As we understand more about this hugely
important group of soil microorganisms and
the electrifying effect they have on plant
growth, we’re also learning how to harness
their power to improve results in the garden.
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Maximum Yield USA | January 2017