Growing your own has never been more popular and a trend that is also popular at the moment is using less pesticides and more natural fertilisers. This is particularly important with edible plants as many people don’t want to be eating residues left by pesticides and eating fruit and vegetables that may have little or no flavour as they were exclusively fed with artificial chemical fertilisers.

The soil is the first step toward growing healthy fruit and vegetables and it is the first thing that should be considered. In nature soils harbour a myriad of organisms which support plants the largest group and arguably the most important group are the mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi are literally a secondary living root which absorbs nutrients and water from a large area of soil and transports it to the host plant.

Annual vegetable beds can be sadly deficient in these beneficial fungi as it takes years for plants to become naturally colonised. In the case of growing vegetables they are often in the ground for 3-9 months and do not become naturally colonised very much in that time, so why not apply mycorrhizal fungi at planting time to ensure the edible plants have the best start possible.

Rootgrow is a natural blend of UK origin mycorrhizal fungi which if applied to plants at planting time will colonise them in a matter of weeks. Rootgrow is also verified by the soil association as suitable for use in organic production systems. A fruit or vegetable with a healthy mycorrhizal root system will take up nutrients better, flower more profusely and produce greater crop yields.

Mycorrhizal fungi are known to have evolved one particular skill which is very important to edible plants and that is the ability to take up Phosphorous (P). P is a key element in producing flowers and consequently fruits and vegetables however in the soil it can be poorly available to the plant. Especially clay soils which actually lock up P in its structure. A plant treated with mycorrhizal fungi will be able to extract P even from clay soils and this will go on to create earlier and more prolific flowers and also better cropping.