"Emery Davis" wrote

I flipped through last night to his garden makeover show, can't remember
what it's called, just as he was plunking a large tree into the ground,
which happily turned out to be a Gleditsia and not a Robinia, many of
which are dying miserably around here now, a large one near us that had
been resisting is currently nearly leafless.

He did a decent job planting, though I've never actually used one of
those watering gizmos, and people I respect hold that it's a bad idea to
have the tree circled forever with a whopping plastic tube.

But, then he wafted a little bit of mycorrhizae into the hole, and gave a
not great explanation of what it does (they are symbiotic with the roots,
providing elements and moisture in exchange for food, as I understand it
and simplifying, which of course AT was doing to).

The thing about mycorrhizae is that you need a pretty great whopping lot
of it for a tree that size, and the stuff is expensive.

I now use mycorrhizae on young transplants and medium sized plants going
in the ground, or bare root, but I'm not sure the cost would be justified
with a tree that size.

I wonder if anyone else here is using mycorrhizal fungi here. It is,
BTW, used by many maple growers now. Here's a link:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/About-Us/Busin...ensing/garden/
Rootgrow




I used that stuff on one of four cherry trees we have planted over the last
few years. When the weather got hot and dry that was the only tree that
appeared to suffer, wonder why, as another planted the same winter without
the mycorrhizae showed no problems.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK