FungiSoil

Mycelium and Soil

Life as we know it would be much different if it weren’t for the mysterious and miraculous mycelium. Such an impressive entity, so different than most life on earth. This fungus can destroy and give life simultaneously.

I’m no expert on mycelium, but I love my soil and mycelium helps my soil by breaking down organic matter, keeping moisture in the soil, and helping to prevent erosion. I’m sure mycelium does much more than those three things, but this is how it affects me and all life in my garden.

I’m an organic matter fanatic. I like putting all sorts of natural products on my soil. Wood chips, leaves, straw, and my rabbit manure all feed the mycelium. After a year of putting down these types of ground cover, I have a really nice mat of mycelium. It’s more than one type, all wild strains. I would say that I put out between 4”-6” of organic matter every fall and by the spring almost all of it has been transformed into soil.

Mycellium and Soil 01

I will be inoculating my ground with some edible mushroom spawn, but it will have some serious competition with the wild fungus. I hope to be able to cultivate some edible mushrooms that will grow in my soil. Why not grow a strain that will be edible?

My mycelium loves me back, because I don’t till. Tilling is probably one of the worst things you could do to soil and will, among other things, break up the mycelium and can kill it. I just like to feed it and let it do its thing. What if you scratched off a layer of your skin and, before it healed, you scratched it off again? You could possibly bleed out. You may become septic (blood poisoning) and would become sick. How healthy could you be like that? Then, after repeating this process over and over, you would get all sorts of secondary issues. Well the same exact thing happens to your soil when you tear up its top layer of skin.

So, let’s find ways to keep our mycelium healthy. I cover new soil with cardboard, then cover it with a healthy layer of organic matter. Then, I let the organic matter compost and the mycelium will start to inhabit the organic matter, then spread to the cardboard. All this layering will build a mycelium mat and keeps moisture in all but the worst of droughts. Even then, it goes into stasis, then comes back to life when the conditions are right.

When the mycelium returns, a symbiotic relationship with my plants begin. Mycelium will entangle the roots of plants and trees and nourish the plant life. Mycelium will help plants absorb water and nutrients, as well as build up the immunity of the trees and plants. This is called the mycorrhizal network, but I don’t worry about that sort of technical jargon. Just remember that Mycelium is the helper of life. Whole books have been written about this process and it is amazing.

Ok, I don’t like too much technical talk, but I should mention that there are 2 types of mycorrhiza: Arbuscular mycorrhizas (fungi that penetrates the host root) and Ectomycorrhizas (surrounds roots without penetrating). They can both be found on tree roots or just one kind may be found. Either one creates direct connection with the roots to exchange nutrients.

Mycellium and Soil 02

I started getting a lot of mycelium when my neighbors needed help cleaning out horse stalls. They didn’t have the time they needed to empty them, so I gave them a hand in return for the manure. I put a huge pile in my hoop house and it warmed it up for weeks, to the point that there was always condensation. When I turned the pile weekly I noticed all the mycelium growing. The manure was breaking down quickly. Then spring came and I spread the manure around my fruit trees. Not long after that I saw such an increase of life in my soil, and my plants were very healthy.

One of my fruit trees was attacked by ants where it was left stripped of leaves. I thought it was going to die, but it ended up coming back better than it was. I think it was because of the mycorrhiza building up the immunity of the tree. I was simply amazed and the ants never came back.
The basics of this root mycelium relationship is that the mycelium gets sugars from the roots because mycelium can’t photosynthesize. The fungi then give the plant essentials like nitrogen and phosphorus from decaying matter.

Mycorrhizas can even stimulate root growth and protect plants from nematode worms and pathogens that may kill the plants or trees. Plants that have mycelium growing through their organic matter will be healthier. I have seen this in my own plants that have minimal pest issues, where before I grew this way crop failure due to pests was normal for me.

One way to protect your mycorrhizas is by not using synthetic chemicals or fertilizers. Compaction is also detrimental to mycelium, so heavy equipment can really damage the system. I don’t like to use any mechanical equipment. I used to have a tiller, 4-wheeler, and garden tractor. Even though these are smaller machines, the repetitive traveling over the same path leads to dead ground. If you can, refrain from compaction.

Mycellium and Soil 03

This is an amazing cycle and if people would become part of this system, soil would be so full of life. We would be fed such nutrient rich foods by our soil. Our bellies would be full with less food, making us healthier, and we could feed everyone for less money and effort. Permaculture is the key to working with our friends the mycorrhizas and letting them work for us to feed all!

12 Comments

  1. Mycelium and mycorrhizal fungi are not the same thing. You should be more precise in the use of the two words. You can not see mycorrhizal fungi. Anything that you see is mycelium

    1. You are correct they are not the same thing and I did not try to insinuate they were but they both assist the soil and plant roots. I am glad you did mention it though.

    2. I just bought lakefront property on Houston Lake Missouri. They are about tp dredge the lake and send the silt elsewhere to a landfill. I think the community should create terraces and backfill with silt. then plant erosion controlling plants and use mycorrhizal fungi to help the silt become healthy soil. Help me convince the community here to save our lake and our soil rather than send it away to a landfill. when do I get a significant amount of inoculant?
      Gwyneth Jones
      [email protected]

  2. Richard, I applaud your enthusiasm!
    What we are doing is creating habitat in and on the soil. I too have access to huge amounts of leaves and lot of woodchips and agree with you that the health of plants are greatly improved for using these.
    The more we harvest our own produce , I’m sure we will also see the health benefits.

  3. I would like to reclaim some lawn to plant a food forest. I was going to mow the lawn, aerate it with a fork, put down a layer of rabbit poo and pea straw, then a layer or cardboard on top of which I was going to put a 4″ layer of a large pear tree that was mulched. I have researched this online and some say to put everything on top of the cardboard and some say underneath. Your advice on the above would be appreciated. – Thanks for this great article! :)

    1. Hello Sonja, I am excited for you. It sounds like you have it about right. My suggestion would be to actually use a spade shovel and turn your grass over killing it. This will help keep it from sneaking through gaps and will start the breakdown in your ground. The cardboard should go down first over the ground then rabbit poo and then a thick layer of straw so the poo breaks down quickly. Have a great time and plant some fruit trees asap.
      Thanks, Rich

  4. I’m intrigued by your no till policy, it makes sense to me. However I’m curious to hear your thoughts on my situation. I have two dead pastures. I mean DEAD. Weeds will not grown on it due to over grazing in the past, and has caused bad wash outs so now I’m left with a rock solid white clay. I will be corral my horses this fall and winter so we can strip the fencing and redo it (its wire and one of my horses MUST have electric or he will jump the fencing). And I’m wanting to kill two birds with one stone while my boys are corralled. the only time anything will grow is in the winter under the mat of leftover hay, because our bales have winter rye. I was thinking we would need to do a major till to be able to introduce healthy components into the soil so it will actually stick and not just wash out into the bottom creek. I was thinking of doing this and simultaneously adding a quick germinating mixture of grasses so it would help protect the ground after the till. Would you still stick to not tilling, or do you believe it may be advisable in this situation? I might add my land has varying degrees of slope, some not too bad but most is. Thank you!

  5. I am curious what you would do if it seemed as if mycelium was hindering plant growth. I’m a fairly new gardener (a few years of hobby gardening.. with toddlers hahaha) and last year one of my beds just wouldn’t grow food. My beets and carrots were so freaking sad, pitiful little things. They had plenty of sun and water and new soil. When fall came I discovered what I think was the reason, a massive flush of fungi popping up alllllll up in there. I’m wondering what I can do? I do want to have healthy soil enriched with mycelium but also need food hahaha.

  6. Recently began adding horse manure to my compost pile. The manure breaks down FAST as someone else mentioned. Today I turned the compost and I felt kinda bad like I was disturbing something wondrous. Meanwhile have a large area where I’m creating a pollinator garden. Curious at what point I just shovel layers of comport onto the garden and quit turning the compost. Any feedback on building mycelium in this case?

  7. Our neighbors tree, that they were cutting down, has oysters growing inside of it. We kept a giant pile of the mulch last summer. This year we began using that mulch to fill our garden beds and I noticed A LOT of mycelium and eventually found a large chunk of the tree absolutely COVERED in mycelium. I scooped up a bunch and put it into buckets and then filled the garden beds with the rest. Will this produce oysters this summer, you think? Is there any danger to doing this? Is there any way I know FOR sure what type of mycelium it is or do I need to wait until they fruit so I’ll know what mushroom is it? I don’t want to poison my garden or my family. I’m still new to mycology.. thank you to any answers or advice

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Back to top button