Trichoderma (& treatment of Botrytis galanthina)

[Lesley Cox]

I think the granule shelf life is quite long - sorry, that means nothing really - so long as the packet remains unopened and in any case, I'd use up whatever I had left after planned uses, on something else. For a home gardener, 5kg is an enormous amount but the sharing of a bag would be ideal. I think the commercial garden centre packets we get here are maybe 200gms. (too frosty this morning to go and look!)

It's always worth considering that manufacturer's who want to sell more, will understate a shelf life for their own ends. Certainly that's true of the rooting stuff I use, Liba 10,000 which the bottle says should be replaced every year. At one stage I used the same lot for 5 years and it was still entirely effective.

[annew]

Thanks, Martin. I don't think my potted daffs would get to more than 20C if I plunged them straight back into the sand. Lesley, thanks also, but it was the viability of an opened packet I was concerned about, if I was only using a small amount at a time over an extended period. I think you're right about them over exaggerating a shelf life, but I also don't want to be paying for it and going to the trouble of treating things if I've let it go off.

[Lesley Cox]

I still think you'd be OK Anne. I've used the same small packet when planting out lettuce seedlings over two years and no sign of that beastly sclerowhatnot thing that attacks lettuces.

[annew]

SSHHH! Don't let my lettuces know there's something nasty they can catch as well!

[Maggi Young]

SSHHH! Don't let my lettuces know there's something nasty they can catch as well!

Do you need to worry? I've never thought that lettuces were very bright?

[annew]

My lettuces are very well brought up and rather sensitive. In fact they are liable to bolt at the slightest thing.

[Maggi Young]

I imagine your lettuces would be well brought up, Anne, I never thought otherwise... but hysteria is not necessarily a sign of intelligence, y'know!

[annew]

Isn't that what you get by drinking unpasteurised milk?
I'm definitely off to bed now...

[Martin Baxendale]

I think, like Anne, I might go for both the liquid and the granular. I do have a lot of snowdrops to treat. In fact so many that I guess I might as well just treat the whole garden.

[annew]

All shares now spoken for - we'll let you know of our experiences with it.

[annew]

First results: Diseased bulbs chipped and treated either with trichoderma or fungicide. These are photos of the chips recently planted.

[Croquin]

Maggi,

Thanks to have reoriented me on this very interesting topic.
Please, continue to feel free doing so whenever necessary, you are most welcome.

Let me thank you factually by adding informative connection between messages that will clarify or answer one point concerning the combinatorial use of mycorrhizae and Trichoderma.

In your message referenced "Reply #72 on: February 22, 2011, 11:04:55 AM" under this thread, Mark Mackie wrote "If you were to inoculate young plants with mycorrhiza and then do a deep soil drench of Trichoderma (not just a light foliar spray but soaking the compost, which would be very expensive) then there maybe some antagonism between Trichoderma and mycorrhiza i.e. the Trichoderma would start feeding off the Mycorrhiza." Here he refers to the fact that Trichoderma is a fungal parasite: why should he not attack mycorrhizal fungi?

And he continues: "I do know of some Dutch scientists that have however found no antagonism, in fact the two organisms work well together, that may have been down to a unique strain of Trichoderma. It is here that we are right on the edge of science and what we know, it will probably be a decade or so before we understand these interactions better." But his assertions were non factual and vague.

In one of your later posted message referenced "Reply #82 on: July 20, 2011, 10:11:52 AM" under the same thread, you added a link to an interesting on line article, which answers for sure, directly and indirectly (connections with scientific references), that mycorrhizae and Trichoderma can synergize their protective action on plants.

[Croquin]

Lesley,

I read somewhere in this forum and in various documents about some questions concerning the need to inoculate substrates multiple times vs. just once with Trichoderma.

I have just received a commercial product for either soil or hydroponics, and they write in the documentation (although a commercial brand !):

"In soil, it will reproduce itself easily" and "In hydroponics, use it with (...) a device that creates the necessary conditions for its reproduction (...) which will allow to keep it alive and healthy"

I have read somewhere that Trichoderma can gradually disappear and that it may be necessary to inoculate the substrate again.

But from what is written above, it also seems that if the conditions allow its population to sustain itself, there is no need for multiple applications.

Now, the whole question is to be able to manage these sustaining conditions, and to be able to detect that Trichoderma population has disappeared and inoculation is required again.

I hope that I could clarify a little more with that input.

[annew]

Thank you, Croquin. We want more scientific research, I think.

[Lesley Cox]

This picture is for Michael in Ireland as I can't put it in a PM, already sent. This is rootmate but I also use plantmate - more for clematis etc where I'm planting out. I use this for potting and seed sowing. This one is twice the weight for the same price.