What does it cost to have a profitable crop? Do you till and buy synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and fungicides? What if there was a more effective – and less expensive – way to farm? Would you be interested?
Profitability Starts with Understanding Fungi
Fungi are found in the top few feet of soil. Their white strands (called hyphae) can travel for miles, searching out plants that will give them the nutrition they need.
Plant roots give off exudates that the fungi need to live. In exchange, the fungi give the plants nutrients and water, in a symbiotic relationship. Beneficial fungi in the soil can acquire the necessary nutrients for the plants from afar. Some types of fungi (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, AMF) send out hyphae from inside plant roots into the soil where they forage for scarce nutrients that are necessary for healthy plant growth.
Fungi connect plants below ground by a hyphal network that moves resources among coexisting plants. When the soil has a balance of bacteria, fungi, and other organisms it is healthy. A healthy beneficial microorganism community can out-compete pathogenic organisms for nutrients and space around plant roots.
The symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants plays a key role in nutrient cycling, pathogen protection, and decomposition of organic matter.
Beneficial Fungi for a Profitable Crop
Of course, you want to make a profit on your farm. Tilling and adding synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides all cost you money. Why not work WITH nature and increase farm profits?
That’s where fungi come in. The majority of plants need fungi, and almost all fungi need plants. Fungi cannot live in soil that has been heavily tilled. Deep tilling destroys the hyphae. They also cannot live where synthetic fungicides are sprayed. Even a foliar spray with fungicide eventually makes it into the soil. You may have killed the mold/fungus on your crop leaves, but you also killed the fungi in the soil that are an ally in your field health.
Why pay out good money when you can get something for free? Fungi are found everywhere. The only place it’s not abundant is on traditionally farmed agricultural acreage. When you deep till a field you destroy the fungi and all the other microorganisms that feed your plants. If you’re growing using tilling and synthetics you are losing out on a free resource that can give you higher yields that are more nutrient-dense.
The Importance of the Plant/Fungi Symbiosis
There are nearly 6,000 species of fungi that interact with plants’ roots. Up to 30% of the carbon fixed by plants through photosynthesis is taken up by soil microorganisms. Does this weaken the plant? On the contrary, the microorganisms give the plant many essential nutrients and increase the plant’s drought resistance. One of the most important microorganisms in today’s hotter, drier world is AMF (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi). It prefers drier conditions but the health of AMF is also dependent on the chemical and physical properties of the soil.
Our weather patterns are changing, we are having more extreme conditions which make it difficult to plan farm activities. Have you noticed your dry sandy soil needs more irrigation or that your clayey field is harder to get onto in the spring? Tilling and the use of synthetics are making it more expensive to farm, inputs are becoming more costly, decreasing profit. Fungi, on the other hand, are adaptable and work with nature.
We are partnering with Purple Cow Organics to offer our clients an alternative to the traditional fertilizer/chemical products that lead to fungal-poor soil. If you’ve been farming the traditional way by tilling and adding synthetics, the chances are very good you have a farm that is losing topsoil and becoming more degraded every year.
The nutrient exchange between plants and fungi maintains crop yields in an increasingly unstable climate. In a world where many agricultural areas are experiencing drought, mycorrhizal fungi could make the difference between crop success or failure.
The hyphae, or one-celled strands of fungi called mycelium, can weave between soil particles, get into cracks and crannies too small for the smallest plant root hairs, and extract nutrients and water. The symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi means the mycelium becomes an auxiliary root system that spreads over a subterranean volume of soil from several hundred to 2,500 times greater than any plant could ever reach.
Plants contribute to the health of this massive fungal root mass through root exudates in the forms of sugars, amino acids, flavonoids, aliphatic acids, and fatty acids that attract beneficial microbes and repel or kill pathogens.
Doesn’t that sound like a recipe for a bountiful harvest? And because fungi also help with drought it means less irrigation. If you’re farming in the south or southwest is that music to your ears?
Fungal-Rich Soil Doesn’t Exist in Isolation
The soil food web is complex. It’s made up of many characters; fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa, and many more microscopic organisms. Here’s the thing, all these organisms are so small that they need help in breaking down organic matter.
Imagine a leaf falls. If we leave it, eventually it will decompose. Fungi will do its work. But the whole process will happen much faster if the fungi have a little help from something that can rip the leaf apart, leaving lots of raw edges for the fungi to start working on.
It turns out springtails, mites, spiders, millipedes, termites, centipedes, ants, and even beetles are beneficial for the creation of rich soil. The diversity of the macrofauna layer in the soil food web is a strong indicator of the health of the soil. So, next time you see a common pill bug (Armadillidum vulgare), remember, it’s there for a reason. (1)
Macrofauna can survive in conditions other microorganisms can’t and they can ready that environment for fungi. Pill bugs are crustaceans and not insects. They turn heavy metal ions into non-contaminating crystalline structures, recycle decaying organic matter, and are more effective at creating soil than earthworms.
We usually discuss the soil food web in terms of microorganisms and the bigger organisms that prey on them. We are one of the bigger organisms. We are an integral part of the soil food web. Our actions have direct and indirect impacts on the fungal and bacterial populations in our fields.
Purple Cow Organics offers our clients an alternative to the traditional fertilizer/chemical products that lead to fungal-poor soil. If you’ve been farming the traditional way by tilling and adding synthetics the chances are very good you have a farm that is losing topsoil and becoming more degraded every year. You have less insect life on your farm. Most insects are beneficial, so reconsider a fertilizer/chemical. Instead, help your plants increase their immune systems.
Adding biologicals to your foliar or furrow fertilization increases nutrient uptake, decreases leaching, and increases the nutrient profile of your crop. When your crops are healthy they are less susceptible to disease. Follow this link to hear what other farmers have to say about the products our partner Purple Cow Organics has developed. Then give us a call at STBiologicals.com. We’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen.
