Endomycorrhizail Innoculant: The wonderful fungal duff to increase the health and productivity of plants.
So. I purchased some of this stuff. I swear, ya’ll
should be getting some kickback from these posts. The instructions say to sprinkle it on the
root system, or in the hole in which the plant is being planted. Alternatively, a hole can be dug near the
roots of your plantings, and insert 1
tsp into the hole as a treatment. The label says the duff needs to be within the root zone to become activated as the plants grow.
Unfortunately, the product arrived after my blueberry plants. The day of my asparagus and strawberry planting I COULD NOT SUNSCREW THE CAP to sprinkle it in the trench as recommended. That day, my hard working He-Man thought he needed to go to work so he could pay the bills instead of helping ME out!
Pshaw! I really so do not want to re dig 64 narrow holes. I don’t want to stick a spade into the clay another 64 times, even to make nearby narrow slits to put this stuff into the ground.
QUESTION: Finally. As all these plants will be fairly small this season, I will be broadcasting flowers after our rains this weekend. Do ya’ll think the floral roots can take the fungal duff sown to my food plants’ roots? I plan to sprinkle the duff near each plant, then broadcast the whole area with a mix of annuals and perennials. Dutch Clover that was broadcast at planting time has not yet emerged. It still has a few days till it's due though.
3
, you can sprinkle your mycorrhizal inoculant on the surface, and water will wash the spores into the soil. So I have used a few different kinds of mycorrhizal inoculants over the years and here's what I've learned. More is not better, really. I discovered too much can cause the plants to freak out and all the new leaf growth is twisted and gnarled and it's bad. In my situation, the 1 teaspoon into the hole, was a bad idea. That teaspoon needs to be spread out and mixed into the soil instead of a teaspoon clump in the bottom of the hole. I so vividly remember ruining plants with too much mycorrhizal inoculant more than a decade ago that I now to this day apply my inoculants at half the recommended rate on the label. It seems to work just as well, as once the spores become active fungi with their rooty hosts in a happy environment, they spread and grow on their own.
