Mycorrhizae Fungi is critical to soil building, nutrient solubility, nitrogen fixation, nutrient cycling, and even higher nutrient densities in the plant which leads to higher pest resistance.
Mycorrhizae to plant-root growth is a symbiotic relationship and we cannot maintain the relationship between the two without a root exudating (feeding the soil). This means, that if we plant mono-cultures or have long fallowed periods, we reduce our ability to feed our fungal networks, therefore reducing our soil's efficiency.
To combat this, we can increase our cover crop mixes’ photosynthetic periods and capture throughout the Spring and Fall (checkout VitalizeSeed.com for our mixes). By doing this we can ensure constant feeding for our beneficial fungi, which results in healthier soil, plants, and wildlife!
Mycorrhizae will be damaged by deep tillage. Keep this in mind as you are planning your planting. I understand not everyone has a no-till drill and some enjoy tillage – so my recommendation is always to try to meet in the middle. If you feel tillage is the best way for you and your property, try practicing conservation tillage where we reduce the below-ground disturbance and leave as much thatch on the surface as possible. This will result in less disturbance to the fungal networks.
Remember, as we increase our cover crop diversity, we increase our feeding of fungal networks, which in turn increases our microbial populations in the soil. We can reduce our needs for synthetic fertilizers and overall input costs while increasing the nutrient densities of our crops being grown.
Feed the soil, balance the Carbon/Nitrogen of your mixes, control browse pressure and let nature do its thing!
We can greatly enhance our efficiencies from a crop growth and nutrient cycling perspective.
Sources:
microbewiki.kenyon.edu