Grass took my air prune beds this summer and I let it happen.

Grass took my air prune beds this summer and I let it happen. Then I remembered that commercial mycorrhizal inoculum gets produced by planting grasses in a greenhouse and harvesting the fungi right out of the root zone, so I started wondering whether I lost a season or gained a network. The answer split down the middle.

Pawpaws are arbuscular mycorrhizal and grasses are the exact host used to multiply those fungi, so that bed ran an accidental trap culture. Chestnuts are ectomycorrhizal and grass cannot host that partnership at all, so those trees paid for the water and nitrogen and got nothing back. Two trees, the same crates, completely different underground economies. Pulling roots this week to see what actually colonized.

#mycorrhizae #pawpaw #chestnuttrees #airprunebeds #regenerativeagriculture