Rootgrow Turf Mycorrhizal Fungi

Rootgrow Turf is a turf conditioner combining mycorrhizal fungi, zeolite, natural fertilisers and a moisture-retention component. It is intended for soils that are naturally short of the nutrients and microbial life plants need, including reclamation sites and other hostile or infertile ground that is new to seed, turf or young plants. It is recommended for establishing wildflowers on landscaping projects, and as an addition to a hydroseeding mix to aid establishment.

What are mycorrhizal fungi?

Mycorrhizal fungi have been benefiting plants for at least 500 million years. Since plants first colonised land, these fungi have lived in a symbiotic relationship with them, helping plants extract nutrients and hold onto water in difficult soil conditions.

The fungus effectively provides a secondary root system, one that is considerably more extensive than the plant’s own roots. In exchange, the plant supplies the fungi with carbon and sugars. Around 90% of all land plants use this relationship to increase their root system’s capacity to take up nutrients.

What is Rootgrow?

Rootgrow contains a mixture of species of UK origin mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi are natural and are grown at Rootgrow’s production facilities in Kent. Rootgrow 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 enhance mycorrhizal colonisation.

Why use Rootgrow?

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

Most plants are raised in sterile compost, where nutrients are easy to reach. Once they are planted into soil, the root environment changes, and this can lead to poor growth or plant failure. In most soils, there are not enough of the right native mycorrhizal fungi close enough to a new plant’s roots to colonise them quickly.

Just 1 teaspoon of Rootgrow can contain up to 5000 pieces of fungi, ready to colonise every millimetre of a plant’s roots within days. A new plant with a fully functioning mycorrhizal root system has the best chance of establishing well.

The benefits of Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi

1. One treatment lasts for the life of the plant, since the fungal partner grows as the plant grows.
2. It is easy to use: simply sprinkle it in the bottom of the planting hole.
3. It supports earlier and better growth. In 2-4 weeks after planting, mycorrhizal fungi can increase a plant’s active root area by up to 700 times.
4. It improves drought tolerance, because the extended fungal root network makes better use of the soil moisture that is available.
5. It improves uptake of fertilisers applied after planting. The network of mycorrhizal fungi acts like a net, catching nutrients and reducing leaching, particularly with natural fertilisers.
6. It increases uptake of trace elements that are otherwise hard to access, since the fine fungal strands can unlock nutrients from the soil.
7. It can reduce plant mortality, especially for specimen plants and others that are difficult to establish, because the extended root system nourishes the plant from very early in its life.
8. It can help prevent rose replant problems: the fungi colonise weak or damaged roots and begin transferring nutrients and water to the rose faster than its own root system would.

Overall, treated plants tend to grow better and more evenly, with a denser root system and a greater capacity to exchange nutrients from the soil. They also tend to flower and fruit more freely, need less synthetic fertiliser, resist drought and transplant stress better, and show improved surface stabilisation and resistance to soil pathogens.

Did you know?

• The roots of a mature beech tree laid end to end would stretch for 5 miles. The mycorrhizal hyphae responsible for feeding that tree would stretch around the globe.
• Researchers have found 20m 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 carbon underground, and it also binds soil particles together to build better structure.
• Mycorrhizal fungi are used to treat tea plants on plantations in Kenya, and some of that tea ends up in UK tea bags.
• Pine trees and conifers would not exist without their association with mycorrhizal fungi.
• Some Rootgrow fungi produce edible mushrooms, including cep and chanterelle.
• The largest known single living organism by area is an Armillaria fungus covering almost 2,200 acres of forest in Oregon, North America.