Feed your soil Mycorrhizal fungi -- the Secret Ingredient!

Remember that your soil is alive! You may add great fertilizers but sometimes they may not be able to be taken up by the roots of the plants. Mycorrhizal fungi help promote a plant's "feeder roots" which take up water and nutrients in the soil. Territorial Seed Company says, " Plants demonstrate better vigor and growth, during their life cycle, leading to better and higher fruit yields." This has been my experience, too. I sprinkle in small amounts of the powdered fungi in with all plantings. The will grow and populate in the soil. Love and Mychorrhizal fungi are the top 2 on my list of gardening tips.

I use their product called "Mighty Myco" (ZFD265, 1 lb, $16.95) Visit their website at Territorial Seed.com or call 1-800-626-0866

More detailed information from Wikipedia:

A mycorrhiza (Greek for fungus roots; typically seen in the plural forms mycorrhizae or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic (occasionally weakly pathogenic) association between a fungus and the roots of a plant.^[1] In a mycorrhizal association the fungus may colonize the roots of a host plant either intracellularly or extracellularly.

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.^[2] 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.^[3] Plant roots alone may be incapable of taking up phosphate ions that are immobilized, for example, in soils with an basic pH. The mycelium of the mycorrhizal fungus can however access these phosphorus sources, and make them available to the plants they colonize.^[4] The mechanisms of increased absorption are both physical and chemical. Mycorrhizal mycelia are much smaller in diameter than the smallest root hair.^{[citation needed]} For this reason they are able to explore a greater volume of soil and have a much 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.

Mycorrhizas form a mutualistic relationship with the roots of most plant species (although only a small proportion of all species have been examined, 95% of all plant families are predominantly mycorrhizal).^[5]

Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to colonize 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.^[6]

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