Mycorrhiza, or High Yields Without Chemicals
Do you already know what mycorrhiza is? Symbiosis, in other words the mutually beneficial coexistence of mycorrhizal fungi with plant roots. We know this remarkable symbiotic relationship from the natural world. If you apply this knowledge when growing plants in soil, your plants will benefit from it right through to harvest, when it will put a big smile on your face. Is growing herbs, fruit or vegetables still a real challenge for you? In the early stages, do you feel that although you follow proven advice and fertilise carefully according to dosage tables, your plants are still more likely to struggle than to grow vigorously and beautifully? Thanks to mycorrhiza, everything can quickly change for the better!
Cooperation with soil microorganisms is completely indispensable for plants. This is also shown by statistics indicating that up to 90% of roughly 400,000 known plant species allow symbiotic fungi to form colonies in their root systems. And when did this phenomenon begin to be used in plant cultivation? Surprisingly, only relatively recently. Although at the end of the 19th century the German scientist A. B. Frank observed during his experiments that pine trees growing in open soil with forest fungi were doing better than pine trees planted in a sterile environment, it took more than a century before scientists around the world began to attach proper importance to his discovery. At least in recent years the situation has been exactly the opposite, and growers therefore have access to affordable products that use this botanical phenomenon to improve the growth and yield of cultivated plants and crops.
Why fungi in particular?
Because in the plant kingdom they have no competition when it comes to survival strategy and obtaining nutrients in a wide range of environments, including extreme ones from salt water in the seas to polar regions. If we go to the absolute extreme, we find that scientists have already discovered species capable of surviving cosmic radiation! Fungi belong among so-called heterotrophic organisms, which must obtain nutrients exclusively from other organisms (unlike plants capable of photosynthesis). From this point of view, we distinguish the following types of fungi:
- Parasitic fungi: this type of fungi obtains nutrients from living organisms. Indeed, since we are already talking about extremes, some parasitic species are even capable of killing their hosts because of this.
- Saprophytes: this type of fungi, by contrast, obtains nutrients from dead bodies of animals or plants.
- Some fungal species are able to “switch” between the two modes mentioned above depending on current needs.
- Symbiotic fungi: this includes mycorrhizal fungi, the best known to growers being Trichoderma harzianum. In addition to this, a truly large number of mycorrhizal fungi have been studied, but only 270 of them live in mutual symbiosis with 70% of all plant species on the planet, including commercial crops such as tomatoes.
How does mycorrhiza work?
For the purposes of plant cultivation, we will limit the explanation of the principle of mycorrhiza to so-called endomycorrhizal fungi. The important thing is that these are the fungi that can live in mutually beneficial relationships with the roots of plants we want to grow outdoors or at home (for example, various types of fruit and vegetables, annual plants, grasses, ornamental plants, shrubs). The second group consists of so-called ectomycorrhizal fungi, which do not grow into the cells of plant roots and are usually found, for example, near trees.
At the beginning of the mycorrhizal process are so-called hyphae - individual cells forming mycelium, more technically known as mycelium. These fungal cells can look different, but they will always have one thing in common, namely a tip with a usual diameter between 2 and 10 micrometres. The tip of the hypha is characteristic for its ability to force its way through the soil. They move towards the roots of higher plants because of specialised hormones that plants naturally release into the soil (so-called strigolactones). This happens when the plant is running low on nutrients in the soil, typically for example in the case of phosphorus deficiency. Hyphae are able to grow by up to 40 micrometres per minute and develop incredible force when “breaking through”. Once mycelium reaches the root zone of its future host plant in this way, the tip of the hypha again serves to allow fungal cells to penetrate the roots, where they settle in the space between the wall and the membrane of the plant cell. Mycorrhiza is then the mutually beneficial process taking place around the roots of plants that have established a connection with an endomycorrhizal fungus. Once the fungus has sufficiently established itself on the plant roots after some time, the exchange of vital substances begins, which benefits both sides. Under the microscope, we can observe a kind of natural barter. We keep saying it: nature is brilliant!
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Positive effects of mycorrhiza on plant development
Fungi that depend on nutrients obtained from other organisms (see above) are naturally attracted to plant roots. Plants can sacrifice up to one fifth of all the carbon they produce for them, which fungi consume in the form of sugars as a source of energy. In return, plants receive from fungi, among other things, the following benefits:
- Uptake of important nutrients that plant roots would otherwise no longer reach in the soil. (For growers, this also means lower use of various fertilisers.)