Comments

1. Kyle says

   August 5, 2017 at 11:13 pm

   Hi my name is Kyle and first I wanted to thank you for this article on mycorrhizae fungi though I do have a question in which I need asnswered as soon as possible in order to help me grow my watermelon. Now I’ve read a few articles on mycorrhizae but more so watermelon, from what I’ve read getting a watermelon to be at its sweetest there are steps and procedures that can be taken to help ensure this. While reading about watermelon and how to get its natural sweetness out I came across mycorrhizae, I believe I kind of understand the relationship between the two but there is one thing that gets me… Will having mycorrhizae take from the watermelons sweetness?! Seeing as how the plant gives the fungi its sugar wouldn’t that make the watermelon not as sweet as it potentially could be or am I missing something here? Thank you for time and I look forward to hearing back from you.

2. ashley says

   August 6, 2017 at 7:48 am

   Hi Kyle, we have not noticed a decrease in quality of the taste of the various plants we have grown with the addition of mycorrhizae. I also did some research and found a couple of papers specific to watermelons. Both studies indicated an increase in yield and water-use efficiency with added mycorrhizae, and one specifically indicated no loss in quality. I know that flavors in water-heavy fruits like watermelons and tomatoes depends a lot on both soil composition and particularly amount of water near harvest time. Sugars become diluted with more watering, so for sweeter melons it’s a good idea to cut back on watering a couple of weeks before harvest – just water to the point where vines aren’t wilting and that will help concentrate the sugars in the fruit.

3. Don says

   November 20, 2017 at 12:58 am

   This statement is incorrect – “All mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of mycorrhizal fungi.” There are many edible fungi that are not mycorrhizal, in fact the most popular commercially grown mushrooms are not mycorrhizal.

4. Expert Hiker says

   December 31, 2019 at 11:52 pm

   You’re flat out wrong that all mushrooms are mycorrhizal. Flat out wrong.

   Shitake grow on dead rotting wood. So do many others, many many others. Turkey tail, shoot I could probably bore you to death with listing them all.

5. Angela Stefanik says

   February 18, 2021 at 11:48 am

   Even mushrooms grown on rotting wood use micorrhizal connections inside the rotted wood. The wood needs to be innoculated with the spores, then the micorrhizae grows from the spores – INSIDE THE WOOD! Now, once the rotted wood is fully propogated with mycelia (sp?) , the fruit or “mushrooms” will grow on the surface, but the main mass of the mycelial growth- aka the parent plant- is underground or inside of the “ROTTING WOOD” that was mentioned as not being micorrhizal.. Don, Expert Hiker, how would a plant produce fruit without a mother plant??

6. Yudel says

   February 20, 2022 at 3:03 am

   Angela Stefanik, you’re confusing the terms mycelium and mycorrhizal. The mass of fungi you’re describing is called the mycelium. Yes, this grows within the rotting wood and the mushrooms sprout from it, but this doesn’t make these fungi mycorrhizal. Mycorrhizal fungi are a specific subset of fungi that form symbiotic relationships with living plants, as described in the article. They have mycelium below ground and reproductive mushrooms. Along with mycorrhizal fungi though, there are many species of fungi, many of which do produce mushrooms, that have other ways of making a living. Some are saprophytic, meaning they decompose dead plant material, and include mushrooms like the shiitake and Turkey tail. Others are pathogenic, meaning they break down cells of living plants, harming or killing them. These include the honey mushrooms or armillaria. So it is not at all true to say that all mushrooms are formed from mycorrhizal fungi. Many are. But many mushrooms are formed from saprophytic or pathogenic fungi. These fungi will also consist of threads below ground or within wood called mycelium, but the mycelium of these species will not be feeding nutrients to the plants they colonize or connect individual trees and other plants into a symbiotic network.