Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Today, I Gave My Garden A HUG...
Hypsizygus Ulmarius Garden patch, that is.
A great ally for most garden vegetables, this aggressive Garden Oyster mushroom unlocks nutrients from straw, sawdust, and organic debris, feeding the roots of underlying plants. Ideal for over-wintering and mulching, or early Spring planting where straw is overlaid, the HUG kit is a natural way to recycle nutrients and grow gourmet mushrooms at the same time.
It is the Elm Oyster, and just as tasty as the Golden Oysters that I am growing indoors. I dug up 3- inches of dirt between the rows of peppers and cabbages that are in last year's bean bed. I laid in an inch or so of hardwood mulch, and then the inoculated sawdust, and then mulched over the entire bed with another 4-inches of hardwood mulch. It is going to rain, again, tonight, so, the fungus should get set in just right over the next few days.
Before the Europeans brought them, North America didn't have Earth Worms. Fungi and insects built the topsoil we have. I am beginning to fully accept that if you are doing Raised Bed Gardening, you should also be doing Mycorrhizal Fungus production, as well. Put a patch in the compost pile, too! It's great for your plants, you get crops of readily identifiable mushrooms, and it keeps on giving.
Here, it is very well-explained in the Wiki:
In a mycorrhizal association, the fungus may colonize the roots of a host plant, either intracellularly or extracellularly. It is an important part of soil life.
This mutualistic association provides the fungus with relatively constant and direct access to mono- or dimeric carbohydrates, such as glucose and sucrose produced by the plant in photosynthesis.[3] The carbohydrates are translocated from their source location (usually leaves) to the root tissues and then to the fungal partners. In return, the plant gains the use of the mycelium's very large surface area to absorb water and mineral nutrients from the soil, thus improving the mineral absorption capabilities of the plant roots.[4] Plant roots alone may be incapable of taking up phosphate ions that are immobilized, for example, in soils with a basic pH. The mycelium of the mycorrhizal fungus can however access these phosphorus sources, and make them available to the plants they colonize.[5] The mechanisms of increased absorption are both physical and chemical. Mycorrhizal mycelia are much smaller in diameter than the smallest root, and can explore a greater volume of soil, providing a larger surface area for absorption. Also, the cell membrane chemistry of fungi is different from that of plants. Mycorrhizae are especially beneficial for the plant partner in nutrient-poor soils.
Mycorrhizal plants are often more resistant to diseases, such as those caused by microbial soil-borne pathogens, and are also more resistant to the effects of drought. These effects are perhaps due to the improved water and mineral uptake in mycorrhizal plants.
Mycorrhizae form a mutualistic relationship with the roots of most plant species (and while only a small proportion of all species has been examined, 95% of these plant families are predominantly mycorrhizal).[6]
Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to colonise the plant roots and aid in the uptake of soil mineral nutrients. The absence of mycorrhizal fungi can also slow plant growth in early succession or on degraded landscapes.[7]
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Labels: Gardening, Mushrooms, Mycorrhizal Fungus
