Just about a month ago (and it only took 450 million years to come to my attention) I learned that in many of our soils worldwide there is a living organic fertilizer by the hard-to-pronounce name of Mycorrhizal Fungi. Actually, it’s way more than a fertilizer, it’s a symbiotic friend to most plants.

This mutual relationship got its start when some green growing plants decided to leave their ocean home for a new life on solid ground, but needed to have roots so they wouldn’t be washed back out to sea from where they just came. They needed an anchor. It so happened, about this same time a fungi was wanting some sort of a mutualistic relationship. Well, you guessed it, the fungi couldn’t help himself when he saw the poor green ocean plant with no legs (roots). It was love at first sight and now 450 million years later they are still married symbiotically and have created sufficient numbers of different varieties of fungi to keep 8 billion humans fed and help give life to all the other green growing things on our planet Earth. 

I have a high school diploma and a college diploma and I read a lot and it has taken 450 million years for me to receive the Mycorrhizal Fungi message. I think some sinister fertilizer company that had a lot of commercial fertilizer in paper bags for sale and were worried that news might get out that there is a magical potion that can be bought over the counter from a local feed store, which will fertilize my Pistachio trees in perpetuity, thus leaving an abundance of now cheap chemical fertilizers sitting in warehouses worldwide. Now Jack, I think you're leaning towards a conspiracy theory, and that usually ends up lacking any credibility, right? 

It took about a week to see the first signs that the mycorrhizal fungi spores. I injected them into the irrigation water to start their journey to randomly exit next to one of 13,600 Pistachio trees. There a spore would set up camp and grow into a mycelium which is a filamentous body that has almost microscopic threads called “hyphae”. Each mycorrhizal fungi will almost immediately start to contribute to a network of hyphae that in time will eventually tie all 13,600 (100 acres) of the trees in the orchard together. They will work together in a synergistic way, where both parties gain more than would be available to the individual. 

Whoa! That’s enough of all the scientific stuff. This is supposed to be a fun read. Well it is! What could be more interesting than explaining the importance of these living fungi? That they contribute to our health and wellbeing and also serve as a communication network, where all the trees are interconnected enabling them to talk to each other and to warn one another of possible dangers and diseases that could be lurking just over their horizon. 

Jack, how do you know any of these assumptions are true? Well, I’m just going to go by what I can see and touch. First there is more new and faster growth from each limb on each Pistachio tree than I’ve ever seen before. There’s an iridescent quality that exudes healthy, vibrant and happy trees. Jack you’re going overboard with all those joyous words. How can you be a Farmer and Cowboy with these thoughts? You’ve got to be more “show me”, more reserved just in case this all blows up in your face. 

Just now, I finished reading another article on mycorrhizal fungi and it was brought to my attention that if some trace mineral like copper is missing in a soil test, this would be a case where a copper supplement would be necessary, as no amount of mycorrhizal fungi can replace what’s not there. Okay, good point. But for all that mycorrhizal fungi brings to the table, l’m still going full throttle on this one. 

Remember those little hyphae filaments? Well those little rascals can pick up a trace mineral like iron or zinc and even a water molecule from the soil that a tree root can’t get by itself. That’s when one of our hyphae will attach itself to a tree root and by using the process of Capillary Action they inject their load of trace minerals and water into the tree root and the tree says “thank you very much” and gives the hyphae and injection of sugar to fill its nutrient needs. The tree, by using the process of Photosynthesis, uses its leaves as solar panels to start a chemical reaction using sunlight. Carbon Dioxide and water to produce simple sugars and Oxygen for us to breathe and green stuff to grow. Mother Nature says “Wow, now that’s real symbiosis. It looks like we’re all on the same page, so let’s go for it!” and that is why I’m betting the ranch that in three more years I’ll be awash in Pistachios and I’ll be ninety (OMG!).

See Ya,
Jack

P.S. Capillary Action is when a liquid moves, even against gravity, from a point of greater saturation to a dryer condition. An example is a wick in a kerosene lamp and with the strike of a match look there is light.