Beneficial fungus....?

[Discus]

As a somewhat related aside, I seem to recall reading/hearing somewhere that large forests of ash (? could be aspen) trees are in some cases all interconnected through mycorrhizae, effectively making them intimately symbiotic giant super-organisms.

Now if only I could turn that into a orchid-growth enhancing super-forest...

[dabblin-n-orchids]

i don't know about Ash but Aspens actually share a single root system and each new trunk irises from a runner sent out by the main root system. there are aspen groves where every tree is genetically identical and they all turn gold at exactly the same time in the fall. (their bark also has a yellowish powder on it that is a natural insect repellant)

[Discus]

Must have been aspen then

[Tsuchibuta]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I also think that wood chips would not work. Myccorhizal fungus are not saprophytes, they have a mutualistic relation with plants. They need to interact with a living plant in order to get carbohydrates and complex sugars from the vascular system. Those things a dead piece of wood simply won't provide.
In the case of Neottia, I see the fungi as a sort of IV drip, transferring nutrients from tree roots to the orchid!

Ok, so if we have worked out that theoretically wood chips would not not work due to the necessity of direct transfer from living tissue, perhaps growing seedlings of the necessary tree in the pot with the orchid. consistently pruned to keep manageable while still providing the necessary symbiotic relationship.

[dabblin-n-orchids]

what i was proposing (and very well could have thought but not typed. that happens all too frequently to me) is that in the absence of the symbiotic conifer the fungus be grown in a media it is normally found in (pine needles and bark) and attempt to sustain it with an artificial nutrient solution that would mimic what it would draw from it's host tree. i have no idea if it is feasible. mycology was never my strong suit.

and if it is not feasible, i like Tsuchibuta's suggestion. i am envisioning a bonsai with coral root orchids growing around it.... hmmmmm.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

If going the bonsai route, Neottia nidus-avis is still a better suit.

1. It's a smaller orchid than Corallorhiza spp are.

2. It's not as picky with the host trees.

3. More people intentionally grow citrus trees than they do conifers.

4. Citrus trees are smaller host trees.

I tried the whole bonsai Italian Stone Pine thing with some seeds of a Limodorum sp (forgot which species), and the fungus it's supposed to associate with, and it didn't work out very well.

In the end, I only ended up with the Italian Stone Pine.

[Tsuchibuta]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I tried the whole bonsai Italian Stone Pine thing with some seeds of a Limodorum sp (forgot which species), and the fungus it's supposed to associate with, and it didn't work out very well.

In the end, I only ended up with the Italian Stone Pine.

Did you sow the seeds directly? or did you try to first germinate them in flask? As I wonder if a different species of fungus is needed in different stages of growth.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The seeds were sown directly. I wasn't even quite sure the fungal spores I got were even alive though. That's the other catch...getting the fungus.

[Island Girl]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I didn't say that none of the neighboring plants weren't trees. The conifers were, and in other cases there were trees within a few meters of the plants.

I think that in the summer I'll dig up a few at my grandmother's, and give cultivation a try. They're going to get mowed down anyway since the people in the building consider them eyesores. (or yanked up like weeds, which is what the garden center does)

Camille, did you ever try this little experiment? I realize this thread is pretty old, but I found this thread fascinating! I've been using the RootShield product with Trichoderma harzianum in it, and I'm loving how much my recently deflasked seedlings, and the adults are responding to it! I want more beneficial fungi, and beneficial bacteria products now! Lol

[lepetitmartien]

Just reminding that I know a bunch of Neottia growing for more than 30 years, in a mountain forest, with only Picea abies and Abies alba to feed on. Got to check next summer if there's both or only Picea…