Snails don't like mycorrhizal fungi healthy plants....and guilds

Snails  (from an old native plant website)

Snails are not found on the strongly mycorrhizal plants (95% of West Coast USA native plants). The highly mycorrhizal (VAM) plants are eaten only if the plant has lost, or disconnected from the mycorrhiza. The snails live on the weedy plant species that are poorly mycorrhizal or non-mycorrhizal. Native snails live on the dropped leaves in the litter, not on the plants. Coastal towns are knee deep in European snails that are living on the 'color' plants (basically weeds) people set out in their gardens, and additionally overwater and fertilize.


Mycorrhiza

The best disease resistance for a plant is to become mycorrhizal. The root system of a West Coast USA native plant can grow 3-5 feet per year and the mycorrhizae about the same. Water-stressed plants can have a huge root system after a year, and be 'locked' into the same mycorrhizal grid as the trees around them, giving access to a wealth of nutrition and moisture.

When the plant's roots mesh with those of its companion plants, the growth can be amazing! The plants can stop spending all their energy growing roots and can spend energy reproducing (flowering) or protecting themselves. Again, the more early watering, the harder it is to establish the plants onto the grid. If you water so the top part of the root ball is allowed to dry out between watering this encourages the plant to make mycorrhizal connections. If a native drought tolerant plant stays wet it will not become mycorrhizal.

Also, if the plant dries out too much as it is trying to become established, it will again exclude the fungus because it does not have the 20% energy reserves to commit to the mycorrhizae.

The same situation occurs if you apply the wrong mulch. Also weeds are negative to oaks as weeds commonly abhor mycorrhizea and either draw from it or compete with it.


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Cristo Balete wrote:Snails  (from an old native plant website)

Snails are not found on the strongly mycorrhizal plants (95% of West Coast USA native plants). The highly mycorrhizal (VAM) plants are eaten only if the plant has lost, or disconnected from the mycorrhiza. The snails live on the weedy plant species that are poorly mycorrhizal or non-mycorrhizal. Native snails live on the dropped leaves in the litter, not on the plants. Coastal towns are knee deep in European snails that are living on the 'color' plants (basically weeds) people set out in their gardens, and additionally overwater and fertilize.


Mycorrhiza

The best disease resistance for a plant is to become mycorrhizal. The root system of a West Coast USA native plant can grow 3-5 feet per year and the mycorrhizae about the same. Water-stressed plants can have a huge root system after a year, and be 'locked' into the same mycorrhizal grid as the trees around them, giving access to a wealth of nutrition and moisture.

When the plant's roots mesh with those of its companion plants, the growth can be amazing! The plants can stop spending all their energy growing roots and can spend energy reproducing (flowering) or protecting themselves. Again, the more early watering, the harder it is to establish the plants onto the grid. If you water so the top part of the root ball is allowed to dry out between watering this encourages the plant to make mycorrhizal connections. If a native drought tolerant plant stays wet it will not become mycorrhizal.

Also, if the plant dries out too much as it is trying to become established, it will again exclude the fungus because it does not have the 20% energy reserves to commit to the mycorrhizae.

The same situation occurs if you apply the wrong mulch. Also weeds are negative to oaks as weeds commonly abhor mycorrhizea and either draw from it or compete with it.


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I wonder if that is part of the reason for the phenomenal results from Paul's Back to Eden gardens and orchards.

Trace, yes, the presence of wood provides all kinds of good environments for mycelium.  I've noticed when mowing this spring any chunk of limb that had fallen in the winter kept the soil damp underneath and there was mycelium.....under almost every single limb I came across.  Didn't take much rain, either.  

I've been making self-watering hugel containers for vegetables, 15-gallon totes with almost rotten wood on the bottom,  a drainage hole 2" up from the bottom on either end, soil filled up to the 6" point, layers of pithy wood I can twist and break up with my hands, then soil over the top of that.   The vegetables just take off and use a lot less water.