Mycorrhizae

I attended a class put on by Santia Morganics about Mycorrhizae.  I learned about how mycorrhizae is colonized.  These are my notes.

There are 3 major types of mycorrhizae.
(1) Endo or Arbuscular mycorrhizae (which exist on 85% of the plant families),
(2) Ecto mycorrhizae (which exist on 10% of the plant families (mostly woody plants), and
(3) Ericoid mycorrhizae (which exist on less than 5% of the plant families).
There are several other more obscure forms of mycorrhizae, but they are highly specific and not used from a commercial perspective.

Some producers grow all of their types together whereas Santia Morganics grows each isolated from the other and combines them in exact proportions when packaging the final product.  This assures that their product contains a controlled proportion of each type.  Growing several types together will allow a few to dominate the mix.  Each type has different preferences such as pH, and therefore it's impossible to level the playing field for each when grown together and some types may fail to grow.

The reason so many types are sold together is to provide one that will find your soil adaptable.  So it's important to have a a good assortment of different types.

Santia Morganics also grows their mycorrhizae  in vivo where as some other manufactures grow in vitro.  In vivo means that it's grown in live plants and soil.  In Vitro is grown in a sterile media.  By growing in vivo the mycorrhizae become more adapted to interacting with actual live plants and other microorganisms.  The in vitro grown mycorrhizae fail to replicate the precise cellular conditions of an organism, particularly a microbe.

Santia Morganics sells mycorrhizae for soil and another for hydroponics. 



The later is finer and water soluable, but the process of reducing the size destroys some of the mycorrhizae so it will contain a little less.  These two mycorrhizae products already contain sufficient amounts of nutrients to help the mycorrhizae become established quickly, but they also make a couple additives that will and promote the growth of mycorrhizae.  One is made for soil and the other is made to dissolve into water so that it can soak down into the root zone or be used for hydroponics.  These additives contain no mycorrhizae. 


 

 The Myco-Fusion line consists of all three types of mycorrhizae, as well as Rhizo-Charge and Bio-Jolt companion products, both which are designed to maximize yield.

The relationship between plant and fungi evolved to help the plants access low levels of phosphorus in the soil but after adding mycorrhizae phosphorous should be avoided for as long as possible because mycorrhizae do not grow and colonize roots when the phosphorus level is high.  Therefore it is best to let the relationship become established before adding phosphorous.

Mycorrhizea can survive for many years as long as it is not subjected to heat over about 120 F.  It will lay dormant until the conditions are right and a host root becomes available.  It is okay to store your mycorrhizae in a warm greenhouse so long as it is kept dry and below 120 F.

Endomycilium is the type we vegetable gardeners want unless we are growing hardwood plants such as blueberry in which case we would want Ectomycilium.  Endomycilium grows inside of the vegetable roots and sends Hyphae out to feed the plant with water and nutrients.  One cubic centimeter of rich organic soil may contain 1 km of fungal hyphae. 

The mycorrhizal fungi become the interface between the soil and plant roots: the fungi colonize the roots internally, and the soil externally. Internally, the fungus becomes the interface where nutrient exchanges occur between the fungus and plant by direct contact of the fungus with the root cells: carbon energy moves from the plant to the fungus, and soil nutrients moves from the fungus to the host plant.

Thorium!

Our media is not built around effectively and accurately disseminating the facts to the public.  Our media is built around putting your eyeballs on their print or their website and keeping them there.  And the best way to keep you there is to scare you to death.  - Kirk Sorensen



I know this has little to do with gardening, but the benefits we may see from thorium will drastically change the world, and possibly the way we garden.  Imagine abundant energy, abundant clean water, and sustainable hydroponics!


Watch this video to learn more!
http://youtu.be/qLk46BZfEMs


Thorium has long been rejected as a nuclear fuel - Why?  Because uranium produced weapons grade platonium and we knew how to use Uranium.  Why experiment - Right?

Why then am I getting excited about thorium?  It's because both India and China are committing to building thorium reactors!  It's been done before with total success but the Atomic Energy Commission lost interest because it's useless for building bombs.  India has finalized their plans and will soon begin construction and plan to have a 300MW prototype in operation by 2016!  

With that being said here are some statistics

    World Energy Demand 2009

    5,000,000,000 tonnes coal
   31,000,000,000 barrels oil
5,000,000,000,000 m³ natural gas
           65,000 tonnes uranium

1 Kg Thorium = 13,000 barrels oil


2.2% of fossil fuel is used by freight trains .   1 Ton of cargo can be moved 430 miles on a gallon of diesel.  Hydrogen is twice as efficient as diesel  I'm guessing that means by weight.  Guess what - Hydrogen can be a product of a thorium reactor!

A coal plant releases 100 times the amount of radiation as a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy - Scientific America

Amazing isn't it?  Nuclear has gotten such a bad rap for so many years.  
It's actually a lot safer too. This chart shows natural and man-made sources of radiation
 

Check this out - Thorium is a very concentrated source of energy.  
1 gram = all the energy you use this year!

 Thorium is abundant and found with rare earth materials that would further benefit our energy efficient technology.  Remove the restrictions over mining thorium in the USA, and we would have a win/win.



 

We seem to be falling short when it comes the using this technology
















 It's much less expensive to build molten salt reactors that use thorium than it is to build light water reactors that use uranium.  Once a good design is finalized they could be mass produced unlike conventional Uranium U235 technologies which can only be cast in Japan.





And there are other benefits!
Almost no economic penalty to desalinate sea water.  There is an abundance of thorium, and it is a waste product of rare earth mines therefore the cost of fuel is very cheap.  The cost of Molten Salt Reactors (MSR)  is many times less expensive that light water reactors.  There is no possibility of a melt down and MSR require very little education to run - in fact they do not even require supervision for months at a time.  The process creates insignificant amounts of transuranics (the dangerous stuff). The temperatures are higher which is why there is no need for high pressure water.  The turbines are smaller and more efficient creating more power.  Thorium does not produce materials that can be used for weapons so it's a low security site.

Other products can be made besides electricity.    Hydrogen can be made which in turn can be used to make ammonia for agriculture.  Finally sustainable hydroponics!

With a little chemistry synthetic fuels such as methanol for gasoline or dimethyl ether for diesel can also be made




Transuranics (the dangerous stuff)



The thorium cycle generates only 1% of waste in comparison to conventional Uranium U235 technologies which run into other problems.



Thorium provides safety and less problems





It's really sad and deceptive that oil companies claim to be promoting green technology such as Algae bio-fuels, wind, and solar when Thorium reactors are far more efficient, less expensive to build and maintain. Why?  Maybe it's because they know these can't compete with oil.  These methods are prone to failure.

Thorium can compete and will provide the world with cheap, clean, safe and abundant energy on a smaller foot print while providing clean water and hydrogen as well as other hydrogen products for fuels.  We can breakup carbon dioxide, disassociate water to create hydrogen, ammonia, and make fertilizer and desalinate sea water for crops and residential use.  All of this at extremely low cost, and very little damage to our environment.  Thorium is so abundant that we will not run out of it for thousands of years!

If there was a lot of energy and it was cheap and not harmful to the environment, what would you do that you are not doing now?

Exxon Mobile attempting to improve their image.

 Oil companies spread rumors and untrue ideas about nuclear energy.  Campaigns like the one below are intended to scare the public.  But even Light Water Reactors are safer and less damaging to the environment than coal, gas, or oil.  Which have been well know to explode, and spill and coal mining is not only dangerous and unhealthy, it's destroying vast areas of pristine forests.

This report was given to JFK in 1962.  The government had the information, and designs to built Thorium Reactors, but the information was suppressed.  Who might want this information suppressed?  There had already been a reactor working for 4 years in the 1960's.   Instead of making progress we abandoned this technology, and now it's being developed and patented by India and China.   We still have a chance to set this right but our politicians bow to the demands of big oil.

We live much better lives today because we learned how to use carbon.  What about thorium?  Thorium has a million times the energy density of a carbon hydrogen bond.

Watch this video to learn more!
http://youtu.be/qLk46BZfEMs

There's still time to plant your winter crops

 Redwood Seeds has these to offer
 &
Johny's Select Seeds recommends these winter vegetables.

Glyphosate Alternatives

Let me acknowledge that glyphosate is only the "Active Ingredient" listed on many herbicides, and that it's actually the unlisted adjuvants that we need to be concerned about. Unfortunately the regulations only require safety testing of the active ingredients even though the adjuvants have been found to be 1000 times more toxic.  The only other dangerous ingredient in RoundUp that I know of is polyethoxylated tallowamine POE-15. 

In an effort to avoid using glyphosate I did some research on how the kill weeds around ornamental landscape plants, pathways and driveways.  I still and always will object to Glyphosate and 2-4-D being used on or near vegetable gardens.

Here are the methods I was able to discover:

Pulling weeds by hand, and sheet mulching.  This is great for a small area


Zinc Sulfate mixed 1-1/8 oz per gallon will treat 4 sq ft.  At $12 per 10 lbs this works out to about $0.35/sq ft.  Yikes!

BurnOut Weed & Grass Killer made of a special blend of citric acid and clove oil and other patented synergistic components. If I try this product I'll post the results, but from what I've read this too only stunts the plant and leaves the roots to grow again.  If you have used this I'd like to hear about your results.

Weed Dragon is a large propane torch.  Reviews state that they are effective at temporarily removing the weeds, but repeated treatment will be required to eventually kill more persistent weeds.   Attacking the weeds again several days later seems to be advised.
The Weed Dragon delivers a 400,000 BTU while the mini delivers 25,000 BTU.  The later uses a small disposable tank, and is easily held by one hand where as the former uses a 20 gallon tank and is often accessorized with a cart.  There is also a 2.5 gallon model that is worn like a back pack.
Apparently 1 gallon of propane will last about 1 hour depending on how high the flame is turned up.  Not all models have a flame adjustment. 


Vinegar, salt, & soap mixed at 1/2 gal vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2tsp liquid dish soap will also kill weeds.  This mixture costs about $6.00/gal.  I don't know what the application rate is supposed to be, but I used it as I would use Roundup. After several applications there was only a few blotches otherwise the plants were healthy.

I mentioned this did not work and someone else told me I had the recipe wrong and absolutely guaranteed that her formula as shown above would work.  Below are the results after spraying 5 times over 8 days.  The large broad leafed plant shows only a small amount of damage.  The grass lost color but regained its strength soon after the experiment was over.

I did find that I could pour a couple ounces directly on the root area for excellent results, but causing the soil to become incapable of supporting plant life is not what I'm after.  Even Roundup leaves the soil in better shape than this.

I hate the idea of supporting Monsanto or any biotech bent on destroying the earth with GMO and toxic chemicals.  But they do seem to have the only spray on products that will kill weeds.  How poisonous these herbicides are is a matter of debate.  During the past 30 years I've never been particularly careful about handling Roundup or 2-4-D, and I don't seem to have been affected, but I've had friends who were in Vietnam that were severely harmed by defoliants.

Of course I'm not advocating that we ingest it.  Only a crazy person would do that right?  Oh yeah our GM foods have been modified to resist Roundup and therefore hugh amounts of the stuff is sprayed on our food.  This I object to, but spraying my driveway seems okay to me.

It seems too cruel but I may have to do my own experiments with Roundup.  The group of good and natural folks I would like to be able to include myself in say that Roundup destroys the life in the soil.  Somehow I doubt this.  Over time, the glyphosate can be tied up by cations in the water or it can be biodegraded by bacteria. [1] By spraying the leaves of a plant, those chemicals are taken down into the roots and might poison some of the microbiology,  but with all the bull that I've been feed about vinegar I simply don't trust the disinformation any longer.

Here's the thing.  Don't make up the facts just to make you case.  Some organic herbicides such as herbicidal soaps and oils have been found to be more harmful to aquatic life than Roundup.  The EIQ (Environmental Impact Quotient ) of Roundup is only 15.3 (on a scale of 1 to 100).  [2]. 

Making up your own facts does more harm then good.   It doesn't work for Monsanto and it does not benefit the fight for a clean world.  This poor lab rat was fed Roundup.  Let's get real, nobody puts Roundup on their food like table salt except maybe the farmers using GM seeds.  So buy organic.

But don't tell me vinegar kills weeds and that it's just as good as Roundup because it's not. 

1. http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/roundup-breakdown-in-tap-water/
2. http://www.sustainable-gardening.com/archives/403