FUNGI IN SOIL
In exchange for carbon Mycorrhizae Fungi helps its host plant
by assisting its roots obtain and absorb the water and nutrients that the plants require.
These symbiotic relationships are a vital part of ensuring the health of all plants that grow on earth
Ectomycorrhizal fungi grows close to the surface of roots and can form webs around them. Ectomycorrhizae associate with hardwoods and conifers.
Endomycorrhizal fungi are preferred by most Vegetables, Grasses, Annuals,Perennials, Shrubs and Softwood trees and penetrate the rootzone.
The Fungi you are used to seeing above the surface can be described as the flower of the Fungal Hyphae below the surface. Over 100,000 different kinds of Fungi are known with millions of others yet to be discovered.
Apart from spore producing mushrooms and fine white threads, Fungi is as invisible as Bacteria and is hard to see without a high powered microscope and some patients.
As a gardener, just seeing the spore producing mushrooms and threads is enough to reassure you that you have established Mycorrhizae Network in your garden.
Tilled soil will break up this network and may take years to reestablish so be gentle with your soil.
There are two kinds of Mycorrhizal Fungi and they get the carbohydrates they need from the host plants exudates.
You can try to imagine a plant sweating from photosynthesis and the sweat secretes through the plant roots and amazingly their presence wakes up, attracts and grows specific beneficial bacteria and fungi living in the soil that subsists on these exudates and the cellular material sloughed off as the plants root tips grow through the rhizosphere.
The rhizosphere is the couple of millimeters of area around the rootzone of plants.
