Myco...What?

In this, the quick-fix, fast-food, "me" and MTV generation, many things in horticulture really need a new word. Start with "horticulture" itself. It sounds like a boring word straight out of our grandparents' textbooks. Then you have the "off" words --hardening off and damping off -- which can both kill your plants if you're not careful and/or don't understand the terminology. I find that people are even put off by the mating words -- hybridization, cross-pollination and cross-fertilization -- which are confusing monikers that translate to bees and/or people spreading pollen from flower to flower.

These days, gardening's most confusing word may also be its most difficult to spell: mycorrhizae. For at least the past decade, numerous companies have tried to gain a foothold in selling us something called mycorrhizal fungi. The benefits are incredible. The product can help plants grow larger and more disease-resistant. It also can help in times of drought and even rescue plants from near death.

Hardly anyone gets it or buys it, though, probably because the word and concept itself is so hard to understand. We know; we had a company, Myke's, as a sponsor for our television show in the show's first year. We had cases of the stuff to give away at flower shows, but hardly anyone even dared to take a free container to try.

"Myco . . . what? Are you trying to poison me?"

We tried to explain that the product inside the container was actually alive, but that only made things worse. You should have seen the faces of the women, and men, as they quickly walked away.

In the safety of your home, separated from these billions of microscopic organisms by your computer screen, you'd do well to understand mycorrhizae before you head out to garden in earnest this spring. Yes, they're alive, but they won't hurt you. No, they're not fertilizer, but they can help your plants grow like crazy.

Here's a primer:

Mycorrhizal fungi live in and around the roots of more than 95 percent of the garden plants in the world. These fungi -- think tiny mushrooms -- live within the roots of trees, shrubs and most other plants to obtain the simple carbohydrates or sugars they need. In return, the fungi help the roots obtain food and water, improving absorption of moisture and essential mineral elements such as calcium, phosphorus, boron and 13 others. Mycorrhizae can increase the performance of some root systems by more than 700 percent.

The problem is that beneficial mycorrhizae aren't likely to be in the soil at the time you put your new plant in the ground. Populations can build in time, but sufficient totals may never materialize and the plant may languish and eventually die. The mycorrhizae are absolutely essential to the life of most plants.

"Most plants cannot survive without mycorrhizae in natural environments," said Dr. Donald Marx from Plant Health Care in Pittsburgh, Pa., one of the companies that has persevered in its attempt to preach the benefits of mycorrhizae. "In other words, plants without mycorrhizae cannot satisfy their water and mineral-element needs. Here's why. For a plant to produce enough absorbing roots to generate the same surface area developed by mycorrhizae, a plant would have to use 100 times more photosynthate (sugars). Most plants, especially trees, are simply not able to do this; thus they evolved a dependency upon mycorrhizae."

Scientists like Marx have been able to identify strains of mycorrhizal fungi that live among a majority of landscape plants. These fungi are now available for sale and they're easy for gardeners to apply, preferably at the time of planting.

"New installations of virtually any plantings, particularly transplanted plants, benefit from inoculation with specific mycorrhizal fungi," Marx said. "Newly transplanted trees and plants must rejuvenate their root systems as quickly as possible so they can begin to protect themselves from the normal stresses found in their new environment. Mycorrhizal fungi form a secondary root system for the plant, allowing it to become established in its new setting more quickly."

Marx further explains that local soil typically only contains mycorrhizae for plants native to the region. Non-native species, especially, will often benefit from applications of mycorrhizae that are tailored to specific types of plants.

One important note to consider is that mycorrhizae need to be in contact with plant roots to be effective. They can be sprayed, poured, injected or mixed as a powder into the planting hole. In general, one application of mycorrhizal fungi should last a plant's lifetime.

That's the good news. The reality, of course, is that understanding mycorrhizae and how and why they work can take a long time. Maybe you just have to trust me for now; it is a word worth understanding and a product worth trying.

For online sources for mycorrhizae, visit http://www.usemyke.com/ and www.planthealthcare.com.

-Paul Tukey
People, Places & Plants