A good friend naturally brings out the best in you. And that’s just what mycorrhizal fungi have been shown to do for plants. The microbes make themselves at home in plants’ root systems where they work with roots to draw up nutrients. Far from being shortchanged, the host plant is benefited as hard-to-find nutrients are made more accessible. Studies show that mycorrhizal plant hosts are also longer lived and less prone to disease. In nature, root-friendly fungi are plentiful in healthy soils. Yet, even though mycorrhizal spores are commercially available, sterilized potting media used in commercial floriculture don’t contain them. And horticultural ecologist Dr. Roger Koide wants to remedy that. In an Endowment-funded study, Koide is adding spores of root-friendly fungi to salvia seedlings’ potting media, then monitoring the bedding plants’ growth under typical production conditions. Koide expects his test results will provide commercial growers and potting-media manufacturers proof of mycorrhizal fungi’s plant-production benefits and cost effectiveness.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT RESEARCH-PROJECT LEADER:

Dr. Roger Koide, Professor of Horticulture Ecology, Pennsylvania State University

E-MAIL: rxk13@psu.edu