Saturday, April 2, 2011

Mycelial Networks in the News

Well not really news but the April issue of "Garden Design" magazine has an article all about microbial networks and how they impact gardening.

It's actually a great article and if you happen to see the magazine and are interested in gardening I would highly recommend it. It talks about the science and a few newer findings by several researchers. But as I said, the article focuses on the networks' relationship with garden plants. The author describes how plants are capable of requisitioning needed nutrients, pushing out competitors, defending against insects and a lot of other things gardeners worry about by using chemical signals. The upshot? We don't really need those chemicals we put on our gardens.

It finishes up with a strong environmental message: all those chemicals are really bad for the planet, especially the oceans and watersheds. But, hey, since the plants are doing this work we don't really need them anyway. Good stuff. I plan to look a little deeper into the research described so keep an eye out for more posts about mycelial networks on the Mycelial Network.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist).

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