If you do any gardening, or if your family does, then you know a lot goes into keeping hungry insects off your plants and helping your flowers or veggies grow big and healthy. Many people use chemical pest-killers and fertilizers. Others argue that using chemicals is having a bad effect on the environment. But if you don’t want to use chemical insect-killers or fertilizers, what alternatives do you have?
Try fungi, say some enterprising companies.
Entrepreneurs sell the spores of mushrooms, truffles and puffballs as alternatives to fertilizers and pesticides.
This gardening approach takes advantage of the natural relationships fungi have with plants. In fact, many plants—including many of the ones we use for food—couldn’t survive without these beneficial fungi.
Among the most important helpful fungi are the mycorrhizae <my-core-rye-zee>. Mycorrhizae attach to the roots of plants and help the plants take in nutrients from the soil, nutrients the plants need but couldn’t absorb well by themselves.
Not all fungi are plants’ best friends, however. There are some kinds of fungi that cause serious plant diseases. The Great Potato Famine in Ireland was caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestins <fi-tof-thor-uh in-fes-tins>, which destroyed potato crops across the country in 1844 and 1845. See the news article, The Fungus Behind the Famine.
But the beneficial fungi help plants resist disease and make them stronger. Some scientists speculate that fungi helped plants make the move to land from water millions of years ago when the modern tomato, corn and soybean plants we know today didn’t yet exist.
This beneficial relationship certain fungi have with plants is an example of symbiosis <sim-bee-oh-sis>. In nature, symbiosis is the close association of two or more living things that may be but is not necessarily of benefit to both partners.
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