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Re: [nafex] Zone 3 mycorrhizal fungi test
Two years ago I got about a one pound sample of mycorrhizal fungus, a grey
looking powder, from one of the main manufacturers and proponents of it (I
don't remember the name of the company off hand, but it was one of the major
ones who distribute the fungus). I wanted to give it a fair test on both
apple trees and tomato plants. I carefully dusted the roots of about 6
apple tree whips I was planting as well as every second tomato plant in a
row of about a dozen. I made sure to dust the roots directly with the powder.
While I was expecting good results, to my surprise, the plants treated with
the fungus did more poorly than the non treated plants. The non treated
tomatoes were larger, healthier looking, and had more tomatoes. On the
apple trees, the treated plants seemed to grow more slowly, and with only a
fraction of the growth over the summer of the non treated trees. This was
the complete opposite of what I had expected!
I was very surprised at the results, but "I calls em as I sees em".
Proponents of the fungus will obviously think I got "a bad batch", which may
be the case. However, from what I saw in my experiments, the fungus is
actually detrimental and slows down growth. This last summer was the second
year, and while the tomatoes were obviously gone, the apple trees still did
not show any better than average vigor, and I'd say they only grew about
half of what the non-treated trees grew. I had heard the full results are
not to be seen on trees until the second year, so I believe I gave it a fair
chance. So unless I got a "bad batch", I'd say "pass on the fungus". If I
did get a "bad batch", I'm still alarmed. What if I had dusted several
hundred trees in a new orchard? I'm sure others have had better results,
but I wanted to share my results as well.
Bernie Nikolai
Edmonton, Alberta
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