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Article A quick look in the rhizosphere of pines V1. Final

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Forsoothe!
Kitchen science is all ordinary bonsai & gardeners need to act upon. The gory details that serious scientists need and love would go over the heads of us ordinary folk anyway. My own formula for potting soil uses 50% by weight top soil as sold by the bag at any big box and 50% pine bark soil conditioner plus additives to encourage the microbial population, so all my trees are already immersed in a full range soil residents. I will throw a handful of old soil into the mix now, too, because of your article. Thanks!
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Deep Sea Diver
Nice work, your point of replication of samples is very important. I wonder if based upon your results, if you would recommend inoculating young seedlings with mychorrizae? Also based upon your observations, what types of “carbohydrates” would you recommend would best be use to ramp up the fungal/bacterial balance in the repots? Cheers DSD sends
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Wires_Guy_wires
I think that there is no need for inoculation of seedlings. Even though we do peroxide soaks, most fungi seem to survive them. My backyard has a patch where I store firewood and the ground is covered in pine bark, I find most mycorrhizae (at least the pine related ones) to thrive and fruit there, they inoculate my pots naturally.
Ramping up the balance in my pots was done with very light mixtures of plant-available sugars like glucose (10g/L) or more complex nutrients like Light Malt extract (2.4g/L) applied once. But that throws off the balance; bacteria have an easier meal with these solutions compared to the slower fungi. They make the soil more acidic and in excess they even make the soil anaerobic due to them releasing co2 and forming sludges. So there's a need for lignin and cellulose too: bark chips.
Right now, I think a marshmellow or two doesn't do any harm either. They are slow release.
But overfeeding these fungi makes them independent, and they could turn parasitic. So just doing nothing is sometimes better. Especially if you're fertilizing heavily too. I wouldn't combine fertilizing with carbohydrate applications more than once.
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hemmy
Interesting observations, good starting point to ask more questions! Well done!
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