Mycorrhizal Fungi and Corn

Mycorrhizae like those found in some of our products including Zenergy and RizNate are beneficial fungi for many plant species, including corn.

The mycorrhiza fungus will partner with your corn plants by attaching to your corn’s root system.  While the fungus is fed sugars by the corn plant – a result of the corn plant’s photosynthesis, mycorrhizal fungi return the favor by improving the uptake of water and nutrition into the plant itself.

The mycorrhizal relationship is seen as beneficial for at least three reasons that we currently recognize:

Increased Nutrient Uptake

Enzymes in the fungal hyphae break down, isolate, and make plant available nutrients that would be otherwise locked up in the nutrient complex of the soil or simply out of reach of the roots of the plant.  By extending the reach and density of the root mass, the increased surface area of feeding roots benefits the corn plant.

The symbiotic fungal relationship is especially efficient at breaking down otherwise unavailable phophorus in the soil.   A large percentage of the phosphate that can be taken up by a plant must be processed through biology in the soil before being taken up by the plant.

More Efficient Water Use

The increased root mass and density of the roots means that plants which have formed beneficial symbiotic relationships with either arbuscular mycorrizhal fungi (AMF or AM), or extracellulary in ectomycorrhizal fungi have increased surface area for uptake of moisture.  Some studies have estimated that the increased surface area of the plants roots can be as much as 100 times greater than a similar plant with no symbiotic associations.

Protection From Predators

The mycorrhizal “infection” from symbiots leaves the plant’s roots covered in beneficial fungal hyphae which can protect the plant from infection from pathogenic sources and pests.

RizNate can treat seeds directly, or can be placed in furrow, in the seed trench at planting