Seedbed and Root zone mycorrhizal bio-
A perfect partner for Grass -
Nearly all the worlds land plants form some type of mycorrhizal relationship – you might ask if these associations are natural and have been developing for millions of years why do we need to
apply them, shouldn’t they be in the soil already?
Mycorrhizae form very fine hyphae, which move throughout the soil profile to connect different plant root systems. They are very delicate to soil movement. It has been shown in natural forest systems, which are highly fungal in nature that if they are ploughed or severely worked up to 90% of the fungal hyphae can be destroyed in any one pass. Agricultural soils have been heavily cultivated for many decades, fungi are very hard to find in these soil systems at all! We are missing a very important part of the ‘soil food web'.
Mycorrhizal fungi have shown to help plants acquire mineral nutrients from the soil, especially immobile elements such as P, Zn, and Cu, but also more mobile ions such as S, Ca, K, Fe, Mg, Mn, Cl and Nitrogen. What is so special about this treatment is that it is cumulative for the life of the crop – what seed dressing or fertilizer can offer these advantages!
• Physically improves texture of the soil around roots, either by separating clay platelets or by
clumping sand particles
• Significantly increases rooting and enhances nutrient availability and uptake
• Crops will require substantially less fertilizing and irrigation
• Supports other beneficial soil organisms, such as valuable nutrient fixing bacteria
• Significantly increases the soil carbon – builds soil organic matter biologically
• Increased stress tolerance to the plant, especially in drought prone and high salt soils
• Plant roots will be better protected from soil pathogens
• Highly cost effective at today’s fertiliser prices
• Long term soil improvement, a more sustainable way to manage soil
• Carries on working and building root/plant connections for the life of the crop
University of Bangor trials 2010 -
344% increase in root colonisation
30.56% increase in uptake of phosphate
64.7% increase in magnesium
45.9% increase in calcium
93.33% increase in sodium
14.25% increase in potassium
32..74% reduction in chloride
55,75% increase in manganese
86.84% increase in copper
31.21% increase in zinc
87.18% increase in colbalt
51.1% increase in iodine
All from a soil that is deficient in these elements. This shows how the interaction of the
mycorrhizae and the plant helps to overcome the plants deficiencies.
A cation exchange soil analysis taken shows that the plants will have difficulty in picking up Magnesium, Potash, Copper and Iodine, yet look at the results of the forage analysis over the control.
