Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Mushrooms and mycelium

I trained as a tree surgeon some eighteen years ago, and while I was on the course we learned about mycorrhizae, and inoculating planting holes to allow trees to form symbiotic relationships with mycelial networks, to extend the root networks and allow the tree and the mycelial mat to exchange materials: enzyme reduced minerals to the tree, broken down by the fungi, and sugars and starches passed to the mycelial network by the tree. At the time it was all new knowledge, as was growing trees in square holes, not round holes.

Nearly twenty years later (and it took ten years or more to get as far as garden centres and Gardeners World), mycorrhizae are standard tools for any sensible arborist and anyone who wants to give a freshly planted tree the best chance in life. 

This video is about more than mycelial networks and mushrooms. It's proper science, give it a listen and or a watch and be amazed at the body of information contained within.



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