Mycorrhizae

Efficient use of water and plant nutrients: Upon colonization of the host plant, mycorrhizae begin to significantly increase the plant’s access to the soil resource pool by extending (literally miles of additional) microfilaments known as hyphae throughout the rhizosphere (root zone). These threadlike structures extract both soil moisture and plant nutrients from an enlarged area and from minute sites that are inaccessible to bare roots drawing water and nutrients from a volume of soil that is 40 to 50 times greater than what the plant alone can access.

Enhanced Plant Immune and Defense System: Mycorrhizae provide access to soil nutrients such as phosphorous, calcium, sulfur, ammoniacal nitrogen and zinc. These specific plant nutrients are key to the plant’s formation of immuno-defense compounds such as alkaloids, terpenes phenols, and flavinoids. When these compounds are present at sufficient levels in a plant it has the capacity to fend off pests and pathogens.

Improved Soil Structure: As mycorrhizal hyphae develop they excrete a glue-like substance called “glomalin”. Glomalin is an important substance found in well-aggregated soils that creates additional porosity, which allows for increased movement of air, water, and beneficial soil organisms throughout the soil profile. Many of the common root pathogens actually prefer waterlogged and compacted soils (anaerobic conditions). Conversely, an oxygen-rich (aerobic) soil environment created by well-aggregated soils favors many of the beneficial microorganisms that assist plants in soil mineralization (of plant nutrients) and help in the suppression of plant and soil pathogens.