Anyone have experience using Myke's mycorhizzae?

I think I might have made a big goof. I have a lot of new shrubs and perennials to put out and bought some Myke's mycorhizzae locally instead of waiting for mail order on the Chappy's brand that I normally use and have actually tested. I noticed yesterday that Myke's doesn't have as many species of the mycorhizzae as the Chappy's and they aren't listed.

Now I'm concerned that I will have to dig up what I've already planted out to treat the roots with the Chappy's. Can anyone comment on results they have had with the Myke's product? It's called Myke's Annual and Perennial Growth Supplement.

This spring I used Myke's Tree and Shrub for over 100 trees and Myke's Annual and Perennial for countless flowers-- Not only did everything survive the transplant but they got huge in the past two months (and it hasn't been an easy summer out here). I would definitely recommend it.

The fact that the Myke's requires such a huge amount of product compared to the Chappy's and that Myke's doesn't list the mycorrihizae species/count made me less than totally confident about the efficacy of the Myke's. However, it sounds like that mycorrhizae colonization was probably successful on the things you treated with the Myke's. If that is the case, I'm not at all surprised that you ended up having such good results.

Several years ago I tested mycorrhizae-treated versus non-treated seedlings I started myself. I'm always highly skeptical of the latest, greatest, whiz-bang, supposedly magical thing for plants. In this case, however, I must say that my particular results were so marked that I've been using mycorrhizae on a regular basis since.

I ended up not wanting to go to the hassle of tracking down the specific information on the Myke's so I re-treated everything with Chappy's which lists all their included mycorrhizae species and spore counts http://www.rootbooster.com/Article.htm
Glomus brasilianum, G. clarum, G. deserticola, G. intraradices, G. monosporus, G. mosseae, Gigaspora margarita, Lacarria laccata, L. bicolor, Pisolithus tinctorious, Rhizopogon fulvigleba, R. rubescens, R. villosuli, Scleroderma cepa and S. citrinum (40 spores/cc (endo), 50,000 spores/cc (ecto).

From doing a quick Google search it looks like there is still pretty slim pickings out there for mycorrhizae products.

I ordered mine from Garden grounds, has anyone used their product? This is my 1st time using this product. I have yet to add it to my established roses as we have had tons of rain here all week.
Jill

if you have established roses they probably already have it. i think the mycorrhizae products are used mainly to "speed up" the process.

Prairefire and Allisoncaspark, where did you purchase the Myke's products? I would have to mail order from PA since I doubt it is available in any garden center around here.
A good mycorhizzae product I have found is Biovam from T & J Enterprises: http://www.tandjenterprises.com/ I have been using it for two seasons now and am very pleased. You don't have to use a lot when you inoculate your seedlings or transplants. They even recommend amounts for established plants. They list their active ingredients as both Endomycorrhizae (approx. 40 - 100 spores per c.c.) and Ectomycorrhizae (approx. 100 - 500 spores per c.c.) but don't specify which ones they are like Chappy does. In checking further I found that all the Glomus ones are Endomycorrizae and many of the other listings on Rootbooster are types of ecto. Since I don't know what one really should have I am assuming both products contain what would be needed for the average garden!
The Biovam also contains the following added Biological Ingredients: Athrobacter Globiformis, Azotobacter Chrococcum, Azotobacter Vinelandii, Bacillius Subtillis, Pseudomonas Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas Fluorescens, Pseudomonas Pseudoalcaligenes, and Pseudomonas Putida. Estimated minimum viable cells per cc: 20,000.
Trichoderma Harzianum and Trichoderma Koningii, estimated minimum cells per cc: 10,000.
I have also tried the Chappy's but I believe it was more expensive than the Biovam.
I would like to learn more about other's experiences with mycorhizzae products. After checking the Garden Grounds website I am intrigued. They are quite expensive unless you add your own coffee grounds. I will be interested in hearing your results, Jill, with that product.
This is an interesting and important thread. I hope others will contribute to help enlighten us about good mycorhizzae products!
Jessica

I ordered the bags that you add to your own coffee grounds, my husband can bring home 5 lbs of coffee grounds from his work on a daily basis. It is my understanding that based on the soil , some of your plants may not have this... established or not. On gardening by the yard Paul James was applying to an established tree that was suffering some serious problems because of the soil. Anyway the woman at garden grounds told me, once it is applied it stays with the plants forever. I am going to start by applying to some monet weigelia I planted in spring, before I knew about this product. I know the product lives in the soil , but you can't tell if your plant has it or not, so plan to give each rose a shot as close to the roses roots as I can. Plan to use a long screwdriver to put it in.
We have had over 8 inches of rain...so hope my plants haven't drown. We had a state of emergency here in northern Il, with wind gusts up to 100 mph and torrential rain. Trees are uprooted everywhere. Will let you know how it works, as soon as I can get out in the yard.
Jill

Jessica, I got my Myke's at a local nursery not noted for its exceptional selection of organic garden supplies so it might be worth some phone calls to see if you can find Myke's locally.

When I did my tests with the Chappy's the only products available to the home gardener were Biovam and Chappy's. I seem to recall that both products were in flux regarding formulation at that time. I tried the Chappy's because it had more species of mycorrhizae. Since it worked well in my tests, still seems to have more species, and the cost of treatment per plant is miniscule I'm not inclined to price shop.

Mycorrhizae does not survive soil disturbance at all well and depends on live plant roots as a host for any type of long-term survival. It is my understanding that mycorrhizae are only reliably transferred from plant to plant via live roots or through application to the roots with a commercial product. Also, different plants support different species of mycorrhizae. For those reasons one can't count on even a fabulous, completely undisturbed soil providing the correct species of mycorrhiza for any particular type of plant.

That said, if a soil has been taken care of very well organically for a number of years with generous use of compost and organic matter with minimal disturbance it could very well be that treating plants with mycorrhizae might provide only marginal results since the plants will have so much else going for them. It is also my understanding that heavy-handed use of fertilizer, even the organic variety, will kill off mycorrhizae. For those reasons I think that everyone should do their own comparative testing to see if mycorrhizae makes a difference with their particular soil and gardening practices.

sources i have read claim that 80% of plants require mycorrhizzae to survive. i would suppose it is as common as blackspot is to roses. it's basically just fungii for the most part.

I believe I've only seen the eighty percent mycorrhizae number specifically mentioned for primitive plants found in the fossil record rather than for today's plants. I've not seen any hard and fast numbers on the percentage breakdown of today's plants that are absolutely dependent on mycorrhizae for survival versus those that are simply capable of hosting and benefitting from mycorrhizae colonization.

Typical nursery and commercial crop practices such as tilling and the use/overuse of fast-release fertilizers that flat-out kill mycorrhizae would lead one to logically conclude that while mycorrhizae might be necessary for plants to survive and/or thrive in the wild that most commonly grown garden plants and crops do not absolutely require good mycorrhizae colonization for survival.

There is no practical way to determine whether or not an established, healthy plant's roots in one's garden has been optimally colonized by mycorrhizae but the fact that the plant is doing well would lead one to the logical conclusion that mycorrhizae inoculation would provide somewhat limited benefit if one were to retain current garden practices.

However, even if someone is fortunate enough to be gardening in a mycorrhizae-rich environment with the correct species present for a specific type of plant, inoculation will mean that the mycorrhizae will colonize the roots of seedlings and transplants much more quickly which is beneficial.

I don't think science provides any sensible answers whatsoever about the degree to which any specific garden might benefit from mycorrhizae inoculation. Comparative testing in one's own garden will, however, answer that question accurately with very little extra work or expense.