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Mycorrhizal fungi versus Bonemeal
AshleyCanterbury
Posts: 18
I'm about to plant out some fruit trees, and transplant a rose, and in the coming months will be filling a new empty garden with all kinds of other things which I will like to get a good start.
How and when to use these for best results?
0
Posts
Bonemeal mixed into the planting hole will promote root growth and plant strength.
MR fungi will symbiose with the roots to help them take better levels of nutrients and water from the soil? They need to be sprinkled directly on the roots as you plant the trees.
Use both to get the best results for trees, shrubs, roses........
Bonemeal is far, far cheaper than MR fungi and we seem to have managed for hundreds of years to get plants to grow without the super fungi.
I no longer use bone meal at all, and only use MF with roses. Some professionals, such as the RHS in the link below for instance, claim that using both together is detrimental as they react against each other and cause adverse effects. I've also read this from other sources but I've known rosarians use both in planting, and I'm not totally convinced, but as a precaution I wouldn't mix the two personally.
Sometimes it's good to get a soil test done, mine is high in phosphorus in any case so I don't need bone meal, which is good as there's also something I really don't like about it on an ethical level.. but I'm not sure I really need MF either to be fair...
Choice is yours.. best wishes for a beautiful garden though, this summer ..
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=633
no we haven't, it's always been there but now someone has put it in a box and told us how essential it is and the only way to get it is from their box.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I saw somewhere that plantain weeds are rife with it so if you have some of those in your garden, dig them up with a trowel, chop up the roots and bung some in the planting hole - something I considered doing when we first came here and I couldn't find MR fungi.
Obelixx is completely correct on that point. This was highlighted on G.W by Monty Don last summer which was interesting to me, as years ago I dug up part of a weedy unsprayed lawn and chopped up the turves and used them at the base of the planting holes for roses, so the roses sat on top of the chopped turf.. The turf was full of plantain. I had wonderful results with my roses, I think the best I've had actually, but never knew why until recently.
If you have lawn with plantains, and you are going to dig any of it up, please reuse it for your planting holes, it's the best stuff ever in my opinion... better than any fertilizers... just my experience. I'm glad you brought it up Obelixx..
Good to know it works Marlorena.