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Re: OT-ish Re: Fungi - A Primer

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Hey Square Footers.  Is potash the same as wood ash?  Could I use it in place of wood ash in
Mel's soil recipe?   Lorri  newbie gardener   Zone 5

Bill wrote:

> Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
> >>I have started using mycorrhizae ( root fungus that takes in nutrients and
> shares them with the host plant) this year. They supposedly work great with
> plants that have poorly developed root systems and with others such as
> tomatoes.
>
> >Can some one give me a little info on this subject? Or a site I could go to?
> Thanks,  Melody
>
> *Very Little.  And it will be general.  Hope the original poster
> (whose name you or I accidently cut off,) sees your plea.
>
> I was given a mycology site, as the owner's job, took him away more often.  So
> it was that or it was to die.  I read up, primarily 2 books
> by a Paul Stamets.  The Mushroom Cultivator, and The Grower's Guide to
> Medicinal and Gourmet Mushrooms.  Famous within the mushroom field.
>
> Mushrooms are "fruitbodies" formed from hairlike "roots" called mycellium,
> when enough strength has been stored and a seasonal trigger, like cold or
> rains, tells them to go for it.  Yeasts, slime molds, mushrooms, black soot,
> white powdery mildew, and penecillin, all are fungi (fun-jI'.)  They fight,
> most have sex, cross and mutate.  Largest organism alive is one, 37 acres.
>
> Over harvest of mushrooms in Europe and beginning in the Pacific NW is thought
> to be a cause of some deforestation.  10% of what you stand on in a forest,
> around a tree, may be fungi.  There are primary decomposers, like Shitake
> (cancer reactive, as many are,) that want wood, usually dead, and prefferably
> hardwood.  Secondary which wants straw, manure, etc.  This is the common
> Agaricus, or button, of which the Portebello is just trained differently.  And
> tertiary, underground, nutrient poor, like Truffles.
>
> They are a major decomposing organism in compost.  Some can cause lung
> irritaion, i.e., when compost is turned, or when mildew is encountered.  So
> they decompose stuff that the plants can use.  Some attatch to roots, and do
> conversion on the spot, while others do it nearby, and roots eventually
> encounter it.
>
> Sounds as if someone has packaged it like yeast.  Molasses, say a tablespoon
> in a gallon or more, can aid them if you water with it once every month or 2.
> Too concentrated and ants arrive.  Ants remember, often harvest aphid honey or
> leaves, and cause mold which they farm and eat.  Dampening off is a mold, that
> is not as beneficial.  Molds prefer 70% moisture. (So...Bottom water.)
>
> How much they help you will depend on what's in your soil already, I would
> think.  But some roots may depend on it.  In a sterile lab, 100 of these float
> in the air per cu foot. Normally in a house, the number was 10,000 or 100,000,
> I forget.  They are generally perenial.
>
> Mycology, a small mushroom list.
> http://www.egroups.com/group/mycology/info.html
> Bill
>
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