China Connection
TB Fanatic
How to Use Native Fungi to Improve Soil Quality and Bulletproof Your Food Forest Against Disease
by papprentice 12 CommentsShare Tweet Pinterest Reddit Email
Note: this is a rather long post that goes deep into exploring the mysterious world of fungi and their practical permaculture application. If you want a shorter, a more hands-on cheatsheet that you can print, fold and put in your pocket as you work on bringing the fungi back to your land click here.
Think about the last time you were walking in an old growth forest.
Remember that smell of the fresh forest air, the calming sound of birds, the serene backdrop of leaves gently swaying on the wind and the sun’s rays peeking through the lush canopy? Remember how with each step you took you could feel the twigs and branches crunching and your feet sinking into the soil sponge of old fallen leaves?
Well, what you saw, heard and felt was only the half of the story. Underneath your feet there was a vast fungal network that has a mind of its own. It’s so pervasive that just the imprint of your foot, extending down into the soil, contains enough fungal cells to stretch 300 miles (480km!) if placed end to end.
It goes mostly unnoticed, but you can see hints of this sentient network if you look under logs that are lying on the forest ground. The fuzzy, cobweb-like growths you can find there are called mycelium, a fine web of cells which, in one phase of its lifecycle, fruit the mushrooms that we all easily spot.
This overall fungal network has been called nature’s Internet or the ‘Wood Wide Web’. Like the Internet it has a network-like design, where individual fungal cells merge together to form what Paul Stamets would call a neurological network of nature; a network that, like the human brain, is aware and reacts to change, but unlike ourselves, has the long-term health of the host environment in mind.
Today, with ever-increasing technological progress and deforestation, we are dismantling the neurological network of nature at an accelerated pace, and thus, in a sense, destroying our own life-support ecosystems.
Sadly, we humans show little respect to the elders to which we owe our existence. In what way, you may ask? Keep reading, this will blow your mind.
Fungi – the architects of our existence
Fungi are ancient organisms, they inhabited the earth billions of years before humans ever came to existence. In fact, you, I and all humans and animals alive today originate from fungi. It’s not just that we share a common ancestor with fungi, they are the common ancestor from which all animals (hey, that’s us) came to be. But wait, there’s more…
The kingdom of plants was, and still is, totally dependent on fungi. The first plants to make the transition from the sea to land some 450 million years ago did so without roots, relying totally on fungi to bring nutrients and water for growth. Moreover, as you’re going to learn today, millions of years later, most plants still rely on their fungal partners.
So, to say that fungi are important to all the complex life on earth is an understatement, they are pivotal! What we know today is that fungi are the grand architects of our environment and, consequently, our existence. They are creating the landscape, engineering our ecosystem for all other organisms to live. Here’s what I mean…
Fungi are generally multi-cellular organisms with a nucleus and a single cell wall made of chitin, and, like all other organisms, they are on the constant lookout for the food. They obtain their nourishment by sending strand-like parts of their body, called hyphae, directly into their food, secreting chemicals to break in down into simpler molecules and then absorbing the juice directly into their cells.
The body of a fungus is made of many such threads of hyphae, collectively called the mycelium. So, the mycelium is, in essence, a fusion between a stomach and a brain, it’s aware of its surroundings and responsive to changes in its environment as it searches for food.
But, since It’s just one cell wall thick and in direct contact with a myriad of hostile organisms, it constantly produces strong antibiotic and antiviral compounds to protect itself and ensure its existence. You’ve heard about penicillin, right? Well, that’s the fungus protecting itself from bacteria…
So, by selecting the microbiome of bacteria and other organisms in its surroundings, the mycelium network is creating the habitat and setting the stage for an ecological evolution. First, the selected microbes feed the plants, then plants feed the animals, and, finally, humans get the whole ecosystem services served up on a plate.
Ultimately, the mycelium prepares its immediate environment for its benefit but creates the entire soil food web, with trillions upon trillions of critters that consume organic matter and each other releasing nutrients that fuel the growth of mycelium, plants, animals and the entire ecosystem. I told you this was going to blow your mind…
That’s why, if you want to engage in any landscape regeneration, you’ll need help from fungi. In this post, you’ll learn how to work in harmony with them to establish your thriving food forest.
First, however, let’s consider the fungi you’ll need…
How to Use Native Fungi to Improve Soil Quality and Bulletproof Your Food Forest Against Disease - Permaculture Apprentice
Reading Time: 24 minutes Think about the last time you were walking in an old growth forest. Remember that smell of the fresh forest air, the calming sound of birds, the serene backdrop of leaves gently swaying on the wind and the sun’s rays peeking through the lush canopy? Remember how with...
permacultureapprentice.com