Add this important biological partnership to your plant roots for top performance...

Plants treated with mycorrhizae (my - koh - rý - zee) are much better able to tolerate drought, salty or damaged soils, and can perform better in disturbed and low fertility soils. Plants treated with mycorrhizae need less water and fertilizer which means less waste of our natural resources and less pollution from fertilizer runoff — two of the greatest environmental issues facing Florida today.

The word "mycorrhizae" means "fungus roots" and defines the close mutually beneficial relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots. "Mycorrhizae are living organisms that form a symbiotic relationship with plants. That's necessary because fungi are not capable of performing photosynthesis to make life-sustaining sugars and carbohydrates. Plants provide carbohydrates for the fungi in return for the fungi picking up more nutrients from the soil." -- Dr. Fred Davies, Texas A&M

More than 90% of the world’s land plants form some sort of mycorrhizal relationship in their native habitats. According to the USDA Forest Service some researchers estimate mycorrhizal fungal filaments can explore volumes of soil hundreds to thousands of times greater than roots alone. Additionally, some of these types of fungi produce growth regulators that stimulate feeder root elongation and branching, thus increasing the total number of feeder roots produced by the plant. The obvious benefit being that the increased root surface of the plant enables it to absorb more nutrients and moisture.

In most undisturbed, natural settings mycorrhizae are abundant in uncountable numbers. But disturbed soils, like construction sites, new home sites, or sites where trees are growing in lawns treated with chemicals are places where the mycorrhizae are destroyed and depleted. In these situations plants tend to suffer from poor nutrition, repeated viral and bacterial infections, and insect attacks. Unfortunately, the response to a situation like this is to apply more chemicals in ever increasing volumes causing nothing more than a downward spiral in regard to the health of not only the sick and weakened plants, but also the health of your yard and garden.

The Benefits of Mycorrhizal Fungi

• Enhance plant growth and disease resistance
• Improve transplant success
• Build healthier soils
• Reduce fertilizer and insecticide dependency

 Order MycoFlor™ Brand Fungal Inoculant from the FloridaGardener Garden Store.