MycoSpora™: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)

Control Ganoderma, Start Seedlings Strong & Reduce Your Fertiliser Bill

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) create structures within root cells called arbuscules that facilitate the transfer of nutrients between the plant and the fungus.

AMF colonises the roots of the target host, due to their significantly smaller extra radical hyphae diameter to that of the plant’s root hair.

Their maze of hyphae filaments effectively increases the original surface area of the roots by up to 1000% with a remarkably productive outcome. Root benefits are magnified tenfold and the plant is perfectly positioned to achieve its true genetic potential. 

Studies show that AMF has the ability to improve the plant’s resistance to diseases, pests and environmental stresses, most importantly helping the industry manage Ganoderma Boninense.

AMF realises further economic benefits by reducing the amount of 'wasted fertilisers', allowing companies to slowly reduce their fertiliser applications. AMF has the ability to secrete organic acids that aid in the chelation of ions in the soil, promoting better nutrient recovery.

The extensive use of chemicals and fertilisers has significantly increased crop yields across the agricultural spectrum. However, the long-term detrimental effects on the environment are high levels of nutrient run-off, leaching into waterways and groundwater and reduced soil microbiome.

AMF : The Key To Unlock Your Fertiliser.

Phosphorus

70% of all applied soluble phosphate becomes locked up in an insoluble form within weeks. It has been estimated that billions of dollars of this reserve remains frozen in agricultural soils. The key to accessing this treasure is AMF fungi. Many studies have reported increased P uptake and associated improvements in early growth and reproduction following inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi. The maze of pipe-like filaments seeks out this immobile mineral. The acidic exudates of the fungi solubilise locked up P and absorb the mineral for transportation back to the plant.

Nitrogen

Several recent studies have shown that both major forms of nitrogen-fixing organisms in the soil improve their performance in the presence of mycorrhizal fungi. These two groups include Rhizobium bacteria, which are housed in the nodules attached to the roots of all legumes, and free-living bacteria, which surround plant roots to access sugar exudates. These creatures convert nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into ammonium nitrogen in the soil and their importance cannot be overemphasized.

Potassium

In 1992, Azcon and Barea showed that AMF inoculated plants absorb and utilize potassium more efficiently. Potassium is the single most expensive fertilizer input and the cost of this input will only increase as world supplies dwindle. AMF can reduce potassium leaching and help gain access to potassium trapped between clay platelets in some soils. In 1994, Maksoud et al repeated these findings in relation to AMF and potassium.

Sustainability : Make Your Plantation A Better Carbon Sink

Carbon is stored in biomass for an average of ten years but that critical storage time extends to forty years when it is stored in the soil as stable humus.

Over 30% of the offending CO2 in the atmosphere originated from the soil due to the massive humus loss since the Industrial revolution (470 thousand million tonnes). In 1996, a researcher called Sara F. Wright, discovered glomalin, a sticky substance produced by mycorrhizal fungi that generates stable humus in the soil. The decline in humus mirrors the decline in AM in our soil.

The principal producers of stable carbon are mycorrhizal fungi and glomalin is a huge player. This substance is produced by glomales, the taxonomic order of which AMF are a part. These fungi use sugar exudates (carbon) from the plant (carbon) to make glomalin. This remarkable material permeates organic matter, binding it to silt, sand and clay particles in the soil.

The substance itself contains 40% carbon but it also creates aggregates that stabilize carbon in the soil and prevent its return to the atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle. As a glycoprotein glomalin stores carbon in both its protein and carbohydrate sub-units. Glomalin contributes much more nitrogen and carbon to the soil than do hyphae or other soil microbes. Glomalin contains 1 – 9% tightly bound iron and researchers wonder whether these large amounts of iron could be protecting the plants from pathogens.

Research now suggests that glomalin accounts for over one third of the stored carbon in the soil and that carbon remains in the soil for four decades! It is not too difficult to imagine a time in the near future where there will be legislation protecting these critically important, humus-building organisms. Unfortunately, much of modern agriculture involves practices that compromise AM fungi. This is one of many reasons why biological agriculture is the shape of the future.

AMF

·     Rhizophagus irregularis (Glomus intraradices)

·     Glomus clarum

·     Glomus verriculosum

·     Glomus fasciculatum

·     Glomus marcocarpum

·     Glomus aggregatum

·     Glomus etunicatum

·     Glomus deserticola

·     Glomus monosporus

·     Glomus mosseae

·     Gigaspora margarita

·     Paraglomus brasilianum

DIAZOTROPHS/N-FIXERS

·    Azospirillum brasilense

·    Kocuria rhizophila

PHOSPHOROUS SOLUBILISING MICROBES

·    Bacillus megaterium

·    Bacillus subtilis

·    Pseudomonas putida

POTASSIUM SOLUBILISING MICROBES

·    Frauteria aurantia

BIOFUNGICIDES

·    Bacillus subtilis

·    Trichoderma viride

·    Pseudomonas fluorescens (palliative care for Ganoderma infected palms)

·    Pseudomonas putida

BIOPESTICIDES

·    Metarhizium anisopliae

·    Lecanicillium lecanii

·    Beauveria bassiana

·    Paecilomyces lilacinus

RESISTANCE INCREASING MICROBES

·    Trichoderma viride

PLANT HORMONE / SIDEROPHORE PRODUCTION

·    Pseudomonas putida