RE: [compost_tea]Mycorrhizae

From: Ryan, Matthew <matthew.ryan_at_rodaleinst.org>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 16:42:47 -0400

Folks,

>From the short bit of this thread that I have read, I understand that
some people are interested in using mycorrhizae.

One of the projects we have here at The Rodale Institute is a
collaboration with Dave Douds PhD USDA ARS in Wyndmoor, PA. Over the
past 15 or so years he has isolated different strains of mycorrhizae and
has been working on practical methods for farmers to produce this
inoculum on farm. So far he has been able to produce up to 100 million
propugules (MPN) in a 0.084 cubic meter enclosure. This is an 10,000
fold increase over that in the rhizosphere of the original precolonized
plant. The main purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility
of doing this for farmers. He has shown by using this mixture when
planting, that has seen pepper yield increases of 14 -23 % in compost
amended plots and increases up to 34% in chemical plots. If you would
like to know more about this research please contact Dave at
ddouds_at_arserrc.gov

I believe that Allan Balliett posted some of this story in the beginning
of the year, please excuse any redundant information.

Below is an excerpt from the www.newfarm.org

http://www.newfarm.org/columns/jeff_moyer/0703.shtml

"I knew we were working with Dr. David Douds from USDA-ARS for the past
15 years, looking into the effects of mycorrhizae fungi on the yields of
various grain and vegetable crops. Dave saw differences in the
population numbers and diversity of species of the fungi between organic
and conventional crops grown side by side in one of our long term
systems trails (The Farming Systems Trial). He has shown that these
microscopic fungi actually improve the efficiency of the organic
systems. The fact that we use cover crops gives us nutrient benefits and
the added benefit of host roots for the mycorrhizae to live on.

For the past two years Dave has been working on a system of growing the
mycorrhizae on a host grass plant in small beds of compost. The
mycorrhizae can then be harvested in the compost and used to inoculate
potting soil for bedding plants and vegetable transplants.

What I didn't know was that this year he is working with some local
growers to move from research plots to growers' operations. One of those
growers was attending the twilight meeting and reported substantial
differences in the rate of damping off of pepper transplants and a two
fold difference in transplant size where he inoculated the growing media
with the mycorrhizae.

Wow! That's worth reporting. I know Dave has reported yield advantages
of 30% to 50% in peppers and potatoes that were inoculated with
mycorrhizae in research plots."

Matthew Ryan
Research Technician
The Rodale Institute
611 Siegfriedale Road
Kutztown, PA 19530
(610) 683-1405


    

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Received on Mon Sep 29 2003 - 19:11:51 EDT

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