Rootgrow Professional Mycorrhizal Fungi

About Rootgrow Professional Mycorrhizal Fungi

Rootgrow Professional Mycorrhizal Fungi is a UK-grown, organic mycorrhizal fungi product that helps a newly planted tree or shrub establish a healthy root system. Use the dry granules directly on the roots of container-grown and rootballed plants, or as a root dip for bare-root stock. One treatment lasts the lifetime of the plant, since the fungal partner grows alongside it. It is easy to use at planting time and tends to improve transplanting success, giving plants a root system that takes up more nutrients and copes better with drought from the outset.

1kg of Rootgrow will treat about 250 bare-root plants up to 120cm tall, or around 60 pots in the 2 or 3 litre size. As a general rule, allow 5g per bare-root plant up to 120cm. For container-grown plants, allow 2g per litre of pot or rootball. For container trees at 175-200cm, allow 50g, and for larger trees with a 12-14cm girth, allow 150g per tree.

Note: Rootgrow does not work on ericaceous species such as rhododendrons, heathers and brassicas.

What are mycorrhizal fungi?

Mycorrhizal fungi have been helping plants for at least 500 million years. As plants first began to colonise land, these fungi were already forming symbiotic relationships with them, helping the plants draw nutrients and hold onto water in difficult soil conditions.

In effect, the fungus becomes a second root system: more extensive and more efficient than the plant’s own roots. The fungi live with the plant for its entire lifetime, drawing a continued nutrient supply in exchange for carbon and sugars from the plant. Around 90% of all land plants use this relationship to extend the reach of their root system.

What is Rootgrow?

Rootgrow contains a mixture of UK-origin mycorrhizal fungi species, grown at production facilities in Kent. It also contains an inert clay carrier, which acts as a substrate for the fungi to grow through, and a small number of bio-additives that support mycorrhizal colonisation.

Why use Rootgrow?

All plant roots in all soils interact with a wide range of microorganisms, and mycorrhizal fungi are among the most important of these.

Most gardeners buy or raise plants in sterile compost, where nutrients are easy to reach. Once a plant goes into the ground, the root environment changes, and this can lead to poor growth or plant failure.

Many soils do not have enough of the right native mycorrhizal fungi close enough to a new plant’s roots to colonise them quickly. This is why Rootgrow works: a single teaspoon can contain up to 5,000 pieces of fungi, ready to colonise a plant’s roots within days of planting.

A plant with a fully functioning mycorrhizal root system has the best chance of establishing well.

Benefits of Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi

• One treatment lasts for the life of the plant, since the fungal partner grows as the plant grows.
• Easy to use: sprinkle it into the bottom of the planting hole.
• Earlier and better growth: within 2 to 4 weeks of planting, mycorrhizal fungi can increase a plant’s active root area by up to 700 times.
• Better drought tolerance, as the extended fungal root network makes fuller use of the water available in the soil.
• Better uptake of fertilisers applied after planting: the mycorrhizal network acts like a net, catching nutrients and reducing leaching, particularly with natural fertilisers.
• Increased uptake of trace elements, since the fine fungal strands can unlock nutrients that plant roots alone cannot reach.
• Lower mortality, especially for specimen plants and other species that are difficult to establish, because the extended root system supports the plant from very early on.
• Helps prevent rose replant problems, as the fungi colonise weak or damaged roots and start transferring nutrients and water faster than the rose’s own roots could alone.
• More balanced growth overall, with a denser root system, more flowers and fruit, and better resistance to soil pathogens and environmental stress.
• Reduced need for synthetic or chemical fertiliser, and less stress on the plant during transplanting.
• Helps stabilise soil surfaces around the root zone.

Did you know?

• Rootgrow can increase a plant’s root capacity by up to 700 times within a few months.
• The roots of a mature beech tree, laid end to end, would stretch for 5 miles. The mycorrhizal hyphae feeding that tree would be long enough to circle the globe.
• Researchers have found 20 metres of fungal hyphae in a single sugar-cube-sized piece of soil.
• Glomalin, a sticky substance produced by the fungi, is thought to lock up around a third of the world’s underground carbon. It also binds soil particles together, which improves soil structure.
• Mycorrhizal fungi are used to treat tea plants on plantations in Kenya, some of which end up in UK tea bags.
• Pine trees and conifers depend heavily on this fungal relationship to establish and grow well.
• Some Rootgrow fungi species produce edible mushrooms, including cep and chanterelle.
• The largest known living organism on earth by area is thought to be an Armillaria fungus covering almost 2,200 acres of forest in Oregon, North America.

For full application rates and planting guidance, see the Rootgrow Professional landscaping information sheet (PDF).