{"id":58375,"date":"2021-06-25T06:53:19","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T11:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58375"},"modified":"2021-06-25T06:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T11:53:19","slug":"mycorrhizae-if-you-build-it-they-will-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58375","title":{"rendered":"Mycorrhizae: \u201cIf you build it, they will come\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mycorrhizae: \u201cIf you build it, they will come\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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\u201cField of Dreams\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The movie \u201cField of Dreams\u201d is a family favorite \u2013 we love how baseball and the supernatural are interwoven to create a great story. If you haven\u2019t seen the movie, you should \u2013 and for those of you that have, you know why it was important for Ray to build the baseball field. Like the magic that unfolded once that physical space was provided, botanical magic emerges from garden soils that support mycorrhizal life. Garden product peddlers have taken advantage of the scientifically-established relationship between plants and mycorrhizal fungi by selling inoculants. And gardeners tend to focus on which of the many brands of inoculants to buy, rather on questioning their efficacy.<\/p>\n

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Choices, choices, choices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve attached a link to my\u00a0peer-reviewed fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0on mycorrhizae for a more in-depth discussion about this symbiotic relationship, but the bottom line is this: inoculants don\u2019t work. To understand why, we need to consider a modified version of the disease triangle. Many gardeners are familiar with this concept, which depicts the three criteria needed for plant disease to manifest: the presence of the pathogen, the presence of a host plant, and environmental conditions conducive to pathogen growth. Pathogen spores are EVERYWHERE in landscape and garden soils \u2013 they just aren\u2019t activated unless their host is present and environmental conditions allow their germination. Likewise, mycorrhizal spores are EVERYWHERE in landscape and garden soils. We can make a mycorrhizal triangle to visualize the three criteria for needed for mycorrhizae to develop.<\/p>\n

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    Comparison between a disease triangle and a mycorrhizae triangle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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    While our understanding of mycorrhizal relationships continues to expand, we do know some of the environmental factors needed for successful inoculation:<\/p>\n

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    1. Soil oxygen. Mycorrhizal fungi are aerobes, meaning they are active when sufficient oxygen is present.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n

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       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Mycorrhizae: \u201cIf you build it, they will come\u201d \u201cField of Dreams\u201d The movie \u201cField of Dreams\u201d is a family favorite \u2013 we love how baseball and the supernatural are interwoven to create a great story. If you haven\u2019t seen the movie, you should \u2013 and for those of you that have, you know why it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[1912,24193,22174,31367,1536,31361],"class_list":["post-58375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-food-production","tag-fungi","tag-mulch","tag-mycorrhizae","tag-soil-fertility","tag-the-garden-professors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58376,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58375\/revisions\/58376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}