Biofertilizers and Mycorrhizae

[newatthiskat]

Ami-Taxes; Taxes and more taxes mixed in with this stupid injury that will probably eat up all my time at work +. I destroyed my right shoulder 2 years ago and it took 2 surgeries and 5 months off work. It works good now but then I just hurt the left (with alot of help) and I know that the complications I had the first time are possible this time as well. Workers comp will nowwhere near cover my salary. Can you believe I had a 6 hour fight with them on the phone today (while I was supposed to be sleeping) to try to get them to cover the vallium for the MRI on 2/5? I couldn't use my insurance because it was work related and they would not precertify it because they did not have a full 24 hours. So I am already out $12 for 2 tablets that are generics. This is the first day of coverage . No telling what they will do to me when I say I want something for pain! Have I ranted enough? Seriously right now I am just hoping to get compost for the garden. At least I have alot of leaves still in my side yard that have not touched the black walnut tree in the front. Looks like these tomatoes will really come in handy if I can keep them alive this year
Kat
PS remember Ami you asked so I had to open the whole can of worms! Hmm good idea. Dig up worms in the neighbors yard and run off with their dog poo!

[~Duane~]

Ray, Was this a problem throughout the season on this plant? Was the problem on this variety only? Those fruit are low on the vine which leads me to believe they were set early in the season. To me this problem looks like what is called "zippering" which is said to be commonly caused by abnormally cooler temperatures during fruit set, and possibly an anther or bloom which sticks to the fruit and does not shed properly.

I have never grown the Indian Stripe variety so I can not say wether or not it is prone to zippering.

[rnewste]

Duane,

Very good point. Yes, this was the first fruit on this Indian Stripe plant of the season. I was not aware of this "zippering" effect due to cold set conditions. Thanks for the observation. It will be interesting growing Indian Stripe again this season with Actinovate, to see if I get a similar (or different) growth pattern.

Ray

[velikipop]

Interesting thread. I picked up some Endofine Plus yesterday which is a mycrorhizal stimulant. I am not sure if it is the same thing as what you fellows are using. It was very expensive $20.00 for a packet that makes a litre of spray.

http://www.endofine.net/docs/Strawbe...tPractices.pdf

I'm just wondering when the best time to apply it is, how much and how many times in a season?

Thanks for the help.

Alex

[amideutch]

Alex, I would put Endofine into the same family as Actinovate. It has one strain of fungi, Clonostachys rosea belonging to the Ascomycota family which would be classified as Ectomycorrhiza. It is particulary effective against Botrytis and as it colonizes the roots helps in nutrient uptake.
Most of the Myco products you see listed commercially and what we use to enhance plant vigor are Endomycorrhiza in the Glomeromycota division of fungi.
What is the difference between Endo and Ecto mycorrhiza? In "Endomycorrhiza" the hyphae (the threads extending from the fungus) penetrate the cell walls of the root and invaginate (turn inside out) the cell membrane. In doing this it increases the contact surface area facilitating the transfer of nutrients to the plant.The Ectomycorrhiza do not penetrate individual cells within the root but form a covering if you will forming a network within the soil and root cells. Ecto strains benefit woody plants and trees where as Endo benefit most vegetable plants which we are interested in.
As far as application, apply it when you set your plants out either as a drench or sprinkle it on the root ball sparingly assuming it's in powder form and then apply periodically during the grow phase as a foliar spray. Depending on the weather conditions will dictate how often to apply as during wet humid conditions application will be more often (1 x Week) versus dry conditions (1x-2x a month). The instructions that come with the product may be more explicit. Ami

[newatthiskat]

Thanks AMi-You have explained the difference in a matter I understood!
Kat

[clspie]

I have a product that contains Trichoderma harzianum. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it work?

[amideutch]

RootShield and Piranha from Advanced Nutrients contain Trichoderma harzianum. clspie are you using one of these or a differant brand? Ami

[clspie]

I have Root Guardian, haven't used it yet. I still have months to wait before my tomato season starts.

[velikipop]

Ami, Thank you for the great explanation. I guess the product I have will be good for my fruit trees and roses and I will have to purchase the other type for the tomatoes and peppers. What you say confirms a report by the University of Guelph in Ontario. They tested a number of products and found that Endofine had no effect on either disease resistance or on production. However, the report found another highly toxic product as being very effective against foliar disease so I was abit suspicious of the findings.

Alex

[Thawley]

Originally Posted by amideutch

As far as application, apply it when you set your plants out either as a drench or sprinkle it on the root ball sparingly assuming it's in powder form and then apply periodically during the grow phase as a foliar spray.

I'm a total gardening noob and took astronomy in college just to avoid biology... But if this stuff is all about improving/maximizing soil microbes beneficial to the root system, how does it work as a foliar spray?

[creister]

I am going to try Espoma's bio-tone plus. It is an organic fert (4-3-3) with mychorhyzae. The manager at one of our local nurseries said it works really well.

I called Espoma, and they said one application a growing season was enough. They recommended that one should use Plant tone once a month afterwards to fertilize in order to not use any more of the more expensive fertilier. This will all be used on tomatoes.

[rnewste]

creister,

You may also want to consider using Tomato-tone as well since it contains the micro-nutrients suited for tomatoes.



It is hard to find, as HD, Lowes, etc. only carry Garden-tone. I order mine 8 bags at a time from Totally Tomatoes since they charge a flat shipping rate of $5.95 - - no matter the quantity.

Here's the direct link:

http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?...95B390A8B89%7D

Also, their page says "4 pounds" but I think that is a typo. My last shipment were 5 pound bags - - but you may want to email them to verify.

Ray

[geeboss]

Ray and others,
FYI... I was just at the garden center and they were putting out tomato tone......they lowered the weight down from 5 lbs to now 4 lbs. So if you can find the older package at 5 lbs pick it up now because once their sold the new 4 lbs. package will be its replacement. I had to do a double take. I see that Totally Tomatoes is selling the 4 lbs package now.

George

[rnewste]

Crap on a cracker!!

That is like a 25% price increase on a per pound basis.

Ray