Applying fungus might seem a little strange to gardeners. We’re used to fighting against fungal disease and other baddies, not inviting it in! Surprisingly, fungus can also be a friend with garden benefits. Using beneficial fungi in the garden (and other biocontrols) can be a great way to help your garden’s natural defences and boost general health.
Biocontrols for the Home Gardener
What are Biocontrols?
Biological control (biocontrol) agents are beneficial organisms that you can apply or introduce to your garden or soil. These organisms then help to control and/or reduce undesirable pests and diseases. Biocontrol agents can include:
- Plants (competitors),
- Beneficial insects (competitors, predators, and parasites), and
- Pathogens (bacteria, fungus, and viruses).
Inoculants and Biofungicides
Biocontrol for pests, insects, and animals is a familiar concept for many gardeners. You can also use beneficial pathogens to fight undesirable pathogens. In my fight against fungal disease in our NZ garden, I’ve started treating soil with beneficial fungi. Yes, fighting fungus with fungus!
You might see these products marketed by specific variety or variety grouping, or as mixed content inoculants or biofungicides. I find the latter kind of funny. After all, the content actually includes fungi.
In addition to helpful varieties of fungi, biocontrol mixtures may also include beneficial microbes and bacteria. Healthy soil is filled with organisms that we don’t see or readily appreciate. These inoculants and biofungicides are meant to restore or augment natural populations of the garden good guys.
Prevention is Better than Treatment
This type of biocontrol is most effective as a prevention, not a cure. They’re best used before any signs of ill-health in your plants. These biocontrols usually work in a symbiotic manner with the host plants in the garden soil and plant root systems. They colonise the treated soil and then:
- Compete with pathogens for nutrients and space;
- Attack pathogens parasitically;
- Create compounds which alter the soil environment to make it less hospitable to pathogens (antibiosis), and/or
- Enhance the pathogen resistance, nutrient uptake, and general health of host plants whose roots they colonise.
Sounds pretty good, right? Even better is that many of these products are readily available from garden suppliers, safe, and easy to use.
Selecting and Applying Beneficial Fungi
Product Safety
Good news for gardeners! Most of the biocontrol products marketed for home use are easy to apply, safe, and comply with organic garden principals. As always, take care and follow product instructions.
Selecting Beneficial Fungi Products
Trichoderma and Mycorrhizae fungi are two of the common beneficial fungi families on the current market for home gardeners. They may be separate or part of a mixed content product. If you’re looking for a product to try, here are a few tips for selection:
- Shop for your intended use. Are you treating bare soil? Seeds? Seedlings? Established plants? Trying to recover from or prevent a specific problem? Some products may be better suited to your specific purposes.
- If suitable for your intended use, consider buying a product with a variety grouping (e.g. multiple strains of Trichoderma) or mixed content product to consolidate your treatment cycles.
- Research reputable local suppliers.
- Look for products with listed guaranteed content.
- Look for stable products with a decent shelf-life.
- Depending on your personal preferences, look for organically certified products. Many inoculations are made for this target market. Even if your garden isn’t strictly organic, the extra layer of certification is another sign of product assurance.
Our Experiences with Beneficial Fungi
Wet Weather Woes
After last year’s unusually wet weather, even some of the very well established plants in our very old heritage home were under serious stress. Fungal disease was taking hold, with blight, dieback, root rot, and general soggy soil. Eek! My usual methods were no match for what nature was dishing out. A new tool was needed in the fight for garden health.
I ruthlessly removed lost causes and cut out the worst affected parts of ailing plants we hoped to save. I didn’t want to drench or spray with chemical fungicide, if possible, but for the severe case on a sickly mature pseudopanax (pictured above) we cut and then applied a careful localised dose of fungicide. Two of the raised edible garden beds were fully stripped and we solarised the garden soil. The next step was to try fighting to prevent further fungus with fungus.
Experimenting with Friendly Fungus
The biofungicide product came as easy-to-mix powder that can be applied with a watering can. It goes on as an initial inoculation soil drench and periodically thereafter for a refresh. I applied it after the waiting period post-fungicide to my ailing pseudopanax (so far so good!). I applied both the biofungicide and a microbe/bacteria inoculant (liquid concentrate) to my solarised garden beds to restore beneficial content to the sterile soil.
The Verdict?
Since my fungi are being used primarily as a prevention and I’m not poking around the roots with a microscope, it’s hard to say with absolute certainty that it is helping. However, since starting use, things have been quite healthy in the root department and growth has flourished.
After their emergency dosing, our established plants bounced back better than usual from winter. This was extra exceptional considering we transitioned rapidly from sodden to drought creating a high-stress scenario. It hasn’t helped the arrival of foliage fungus with our recent shift to wet humid weather, but hopefully the plants are a little stronger to fend it off. I intend to keep using it, and will start our garden at the new house with inoculated soil.
The garden at our new house has heavy clay soil. The use of beneficial fungi has been a key part of arming our plants for better defences against the heightened risks that come with soggy winters and baking summers. All major plantings were given an initial inoculation. At-risk varieties have been receiving periodic booster doses. So far so good! Our curious neighbours have been introduced to my various “witch’s brews” as well.
