Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower's Guide to Mycorrhizae

Teaming #3

by Jeff Lowenfels

“Accomplishes what few other books have—helping growers use mycorrhizae to improve the immune systems of plants. This natural union between plants and fungi is the foundation of our food web.” —Paul Stamets, author of  Mycelium How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Teaming with Fungi  is an important guide to mycorrhizae and the role they play in agriculture, horticulture, and hydroponics. Almost every plant in a garden forms a relationship with fungi, and many plants would not exist without their fungal partners. By better understanding this relationship, home gardeners can take advantage of the benefits of fungi, which include an increased uptake in nutrients, resistance to drought, earlier fruiting, and more. This must-have guide will teach you how fungi interact with plants and how to best to employ them in your home garden.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Science, Agriculture, Nature, Biology, Environment

172 pages, Hardcover

Published January 11, 2017

About the author

Jeff Lowenfels (Lord of the Roots), is one of the most humorous and entertaining lecturers and writers on the organic gardening circuit. He is a reformed lawyer who went back to his childhood roots to become a leader in the organic gardening movement. He is the author of a series of award-winning and bestselling books, three of which have become bibles for organic growers worldwide, including Teaming with Microbes, Teaming with Nutrients, and Teaming with Fungi. Lowenfels has also penned the longest running garden column in North America and was inducted into the Garden Writers of America hall of fame after serving as President. He is the founder of “Plant A Row for The Hungry,” a program which has resulted in millions of pounds of garden produce being donated to feed the hungry every year. He lives in Anchorage Alaska, where cannabis has been legal since 1975.

Reviews

[Kevin Stilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for a better understanding of how mycorrhizae works to create healthy soil and plants. The first third of the book is very technical and will lose some readers before getting to the more practical information, but I encourage you to stick with the book and you will be rewarded. Casual gardeners may be better served by watching this Growing Your Greens Youtube video that discusses mycorrhizae fungi -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAE6... .

[Erin Kirkpatrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could have gained the same or more insight from a couple of Wiki pages. OR a few YouTube videos. OR a single Paul Stamets TED Talk. No, those might contain references. This was vague and repetitive and basic. Vague: p 71 The same process, with "different organisms", "may" impact the intake of "other" nutrients. Repetitive: I believe the amount of useful information contained could be condensed into a few page pamphlet including relevant pictures. Basic: I took a single semester college course on plants over ten years ago and this was still basic. I sped read the last few chapters and even that was painful. I couldn't have gotten away with saying "a study says" even once in high school without a reference, let alone throughout a published book. I have no way of verifying the little bit of potentially applicable information this book contains without references making the entire thing utterly worthless to me. I rarely write reviews and try to give two stars at minimum so as to not be extreme...for this waste of natural resources, I clearly made an exception.

[Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good intro, and I think will be a good reference throughout my gardening! I had fun reading it, but it may not be accessible to folks not familiar with either a strong biology background or mycology. I feel excited to start experimenting with mycorrhiazae in my own plot and even was made aware of some of my own misconceptions!

I also learned about glomalin for the first time and am excited to talk about it more.

[Slov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read the previous 2 books in this trilogy, but I have a good understanding of nutrient for plants and soil food webs. So read those beforehand to get a better understanding of the big picture BUT if they are as concise and streamlined as this book then I will enjoy the others just as much.

This book is quite short, sort of like a crash course but it is also detailed enough and references a lot of research and experiments and data to back up the claims. It was easy to read, none of it felt like it lingered or went into an info dump. Great resource for an understanding how fungi are vital to the health of plants, tips and recipes for growing your own. Very enjoyable, I am going to check out this author's other works.

[JEAVONNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third book in the series. Brings it all together. Lots of information about the current state of the research. Plenty of information about buying, harvesting or making your own mycorrhizal fungi stash to use in your own garden. It's not just for commercial or research use anymore. The benefits have been proven in many cases. It seems to be a common amendment. Excited to begin rebuilding my soil using these techniques.

[Jason Baldauf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to fungi in general and mycorrhiza specifically. The author explains how they function and work with plants to optimize growing conditions for both. They’re use in agriculture, horticulture, silviculture, hydroponics and grasses are detailed. How to grow your own is also covered, but it seems way over the capability level of a recreational gardener. I would like to see more information on how that audience can best put mycorrhiza to use in a home setting.

[Dugan Maynard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A so-so overview of the important role mycorrhizae play in the environment, and how they interact with plants. The first third was a bit of a dove into the taxonomy of the various fungi, and a bit of the history of research in the subject, the second third covered a mechanistic explanation of the structure of the fungi and how they interact with plants on a cellular level, the final section outlined what improvements have been shown from inoculating plants with fungi early on, as well as a description of how to propagate fungal hyphae/spores. As someone who’s interest was mostly in how to use fungi in my home garden this was the only relevant section.

Overall I found the book rather dry, very hung up on nailing down the taxonomic jargon at the expense of a more interesting/poetic interpretation of what’s going on. I found the section on the benefits of using fungi very repetitive, it pretty much just outlined the fact that it improved plant health and stress resistance in every case. More synthesis of results to paint a fuller picture of how fungi could be used might be worthwhile, or (since this is the third book in the series) some overview of how to balance the soil microcosm for plants in general— things that lead to health soil critters, bacteria and fungi all together.

I also felt like the author plugged their other books in the series too much, once is fine, twice is annoying, three times is too much.

Good information in there if you can stick it out, but you have to do some wadding to find it.

[Iain · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main reason for my low ranking is because a lot of this book went over my head. You need a basic grounding in plant biology to be able to appreciate it properly. The use of mycorrhizae does sound very promising, though. If you like gardening or growing vegetables you will probably get a lot more out of this book than I did.

[Gonzalo Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

La información propuesta por el libro tiene sentido con todo lo que conozco del tema. Lo único que no me parece pero no tengo una forma de saber con certeza(ya que fue audilibro) es que por otros reviews al parecer este libro no tiene referencias ni bibliográficas, si es el caso se me hace una forma poco profesional de publicar información científica. Si ese es el caso mi rating es de 2.5 - 3.

[John Bliese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plant Propagation Know How

An initial investment in knowledge of fungi, then it's growth in symbiosis with plant roots to produce exhilarating plant growth, yield and defence. Including how to aids and resources.

[Joanne McKinnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made a promise when I moved in my present home. I will leave the soil healthier than it was when I arrived. Reading every book of this series supplied me with the information I needed. I am a gardener from the soil up.

[Jhawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this book but it had a lot of repetitive information. Learned a lot and will be looking for further information on mycorrhizae.

[Glenn Younger · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE Mycorrhizae primer

[Jamie Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scientific explanation to the roll and importance fungi play in a plants life cycle.

[David Makowicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complements the book- Teaming with nutrients.
Interesting for a gardener, yet a little repetitive and lengthy where it did not need to be.

[Jon Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an informative read that goes very deep. Depending on your biology knowledge, it may be too deep.

[Antony G · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve read the first soil food web book this feels like a reference book not quite what I anticipated after reading the first one.

[Patrick Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cool book. I read it for work, I don’t remember a ton of it. Fungi are fascinating

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Teaming with Fungi" is about using beneficial fungi in crop agriculture, gardening, nurseries, forests, lawns, and hydroponics. The author described the benefits to using mycorrhizae when growing many types of plants and what practices can support or disrupt their growth.

He named specific fungi known to work well with certain plants and described how to best apply them to your plants. He even described how to collect and grow your own if you don't want to buy them, though it looked like a lot of work to me. He also included a technical section on the biology of beneficial fungi and a detailed explanation about how they interact with plants.

Last year, I tried to use mycorrhizae in my organic gardening but felt like I hadn't applied them correctly to some perennial plants. Reading this book did enlighten me as to what to do to get the most out of beneficial fungi, and I'll feel more confident using them in the future.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.