hi all, a couple of months back i got reading the "fun with fungi" topic and decided that i had to get some. so i finally ordered it from rootgrow themselves and got it yesterday sorted

ive got some potting on to do tonight and after reading the back of the pack and seeing the amounts they are telling you to use i thought id ask if you can be more liberal with it and produce the same effect?

shouldn't one spore on one root be enough to infect the whole rhizosphere, technically?

and how long does it take before any noticable increase in vigour etc is seen?

thanks

You mean less liberal then....

I don't know. To be honest you can get away with using about half a scoop per pot, if you're going into 5 or 6 ltr pots, say, and you're skillful with your sprinkling method. Another way to get a better spread is to mist around the old root ball till it's damp, then sprinkle the granules on the outside as you roll it round, then put what are left in the bottom and plant away.

I wouldn't bother trying to be too much of a cheapskate though mate. It only needs to be applied once and your plants are sorted. Better to do the job properly.

As for how long it takes to see the results, my guess is that you won't. Don't expect miracles from any one thing. Get all aspects of your organics flowing smoothly to see the results. The job of the fungi you're applying is to enable roots to basically become more efficient workers for the plant. That is all. It is then your job to provide those roots with a good living environment and then a rich nutritious food source, as well as the little organisms that make it all available.

That would depend on how much loam there is in your compost, if you are using a peat based compost with little or no loam, like Allmix, then the mycorrhizal fungi have a hard time reproducing in that medium and you are advised to reapply at each potting up. If on the other hand you are using a compost that is high in loam the VAM's find that a much more friendly environment and are able to reproduce more easily.

This is mainly because peat is a dead sterile medium, think how long things last without decaying when submerged in peat bogs . Loam provides a much richer environment where the fungi will be able to obtain all the normal minerals and form association with beneficial bacteria that they'd find in their natural habitat.

It has been suggested that Trichoderma Harzianum will do better in a peat based compost than VAM's as they obtain all their nutrients from the plant roots but do seem to encourage heavier root formation, possibly to extend their living space or because the roots are better protected from disease.

That's the point I was making about creating as good an environment as possible for all this stuff to work. I think too many people expect too many things from one product or another. In chemical gardening this may be understandable, seeing as how the relationship between the implementation and the result is immediate. In organic growing there is a lot of groundwork to be set in place before optimum results can be had. One such thing is understanding your medium a little better and being able to construct a better environment for such bacteria and fungi to breed and multiply. It's a matter of fine tuning, understanding better what is available to use for yourself and being able to tweak and experiment from there.

Heya dr.gt , technically? , yes , but you would be better of adding a few more as Rootgrow contains several species and the main factor being the time scale as to reproducing fast enough in three months or so we use on singular root contained plants . Imho just make sure you get a nice covering a first early pot up then encourage and feed there environment , you can go over the top but highly unlikely but again imho no benefit to the plant and may even cause an imbalance , good luck .

Trichoderma will also work/replace ? with the mycorrhizae ecto's that some seem to think deplete in peat based while the endo's , both in rootgrow , afaik , carry on regardless , not modded felix ? , tis a secret ? atb .