Quote:
Originally Posted by Kylie2x
LOL!! Sorry confused again... SO if your plants have all of the nutrients they need this is not beneficial? But how do you know if your plants have all they need? Most of what I grow with the exception of Veggies are a bit high maintenance ..I was thinking this might be a way to approach them organically and to cut down on time spent..???? I have a life times supply of organic matter..LOL We run Cattle.. Is this something that will benefit me or should I just gather more available resources...
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You'll have to test out the effect it has under the conditions in which you're growing the plants.
I found
this by doing a quick google search. They seem to have had to success with bacteria and fungus but I don't know the conditions in which they were grown. It also did not test the benefit of mycorrhizae alone.
At my local Ace Hardware, they sold jars of mycorrhizae last year. Be aware that you have to incorporate it into the soil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyc
Maybe I need to clarify: a compost made with a more wood chips and less green material, for instance, will have more fungi and less bacteria than a compost made with more green material and less brown material. Composts with higher fungi populations reportedly produce a slime that is acidic and such composts (and teas made from such composts) are supposedly better for trees than ones made with lower fungi levels.
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Are you talking about the Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio? When you apply compost that has a high amount of carbon compared to nitrogen, it actually locks up the nitrogen available to the plants. Soil organism need both N and C and if nitrogen is in low supply, they will absorb all of the nitrogen in the soil. Thats why its important to allow compost to decompose. The organisms release the C as CO2 which allows the compost to have a higher ratio of N.
Different types of composts have different C:N ratios. Wood chips are high in C. Applying a good amount of fresh wood chips to soil will cause nitrogen deficiency in the plants since the organisms will absorb the N in the soil. Organic forms of nitrogen such as urea will acidify the soil as they change form.