Plants and Mushrooms working together?

[Jessica Jones]

This year I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to and listen to Paul Stamets speech. I was amazed by his knowledge and enthusiam for mushrooms. How mushrooms can be used for erosion control, to cure diseases, and in mycoremediation! His speech invoked a passion for mushrooms in me and lots of curosity.

For a long time I have been noticing Mushrooms growing right next to my Zucchini plant, since the mushrooms have started growing near it, the plant has grown huge! The mushrooms i notice come and go, and the plant continues to make zucchinis even though it is october now in CA! I have a hunch that the mushrooms are working with the plant, have a sort of relationship with it! There are about four varieties growing around the plant, one that have a flat brown head, one that looks like a cauliflower head, round white heads, and than multiple heads all on one stem!

Has anybody else noticed a connection to mushrooms and the growth and vitality of their plants?

[Melissa MoonGoddess]

Oh yes, oh yes! I'm a fungophagist, and a fungophile, and fungi (i.e. mushrooms and their kin) most definitely assist other plants. Actually, they tend to do so more in permaculture and perennial settings as the yearly digging of a garden upsets the microscopic filaments of hyphae that fungi send out. One gram of healthy topsoil is supposed to have multitudinous fungal hyphae in it (I forget the exact number, but I believe it numbers in the thousands).

I've read an article in Orion, sometime in the past year, that showed how fungal innoculation helped small permaculture plantings placed in water catchment depressions in the soil, perform much better than their uninnoculated counterparts.

It's also known that fungi and trees most definitely have a symbiotic relationship because fungi can have **vast** networks of hyphae that can slurp up nutrients far from a tree's reach and then supply them to the tree's roots. Many hyphae actually live between the cells of tree roots.

Too much to share, but yes, yes, yes, fungi rock!

[Ellen Doudna]

Micorhyzals in the soil make nutrients available to the plants--especially phosporus. Farmers innoculate their seedlings with micorhyzal fungi. Some potting soil now comes innoculated, I noticed. You might check out Paul Stamets' book "Mycelium Running", about this. I agree with him. Mushrooms may very well save the world. Meanwhile, enjoy the zucchinis.

[Jessica Jones]

I read in Michael Pollan's book, Omnivores Dilemma the other day that not only do mushrooms give nutrients to the plant's roots, but that the plants in return feed sucrose to the mushrooms! A giving relationship that is so beautiful and amazing!

Fondly
Jessica

[Charley Quinton]

The Western Montana Mycological Association has a nifty resource for mushroomers at FungalJungle.org

[Edmund Williams]

Mushrooms help the plants in two ways, depending on the type of mushroom. Mycorrhizal mushrooms form a mutualistic relationship with the plant and feed nutrients and water to the plant in return for sugars from the plant. Think of it like a living fertilizer. Saprophytic mushrooms break down organic material in the soil and make the nutrients more available for the plant to take up. I have done a number of experiments at home on this relationship, some with great success. I just planted some container plants in compost, wood chips, fertilizer, and shaggy mane mushrooms. We'll see in the next few months how it works! http://madbioneer.blogspot.com