Match the fungus type to the plant — vegetables are not pines

A vegetable transplant, onion, maize, or many fruit trees usually partners with arbuscular fungi that enter the root. Many pines, oaks, and other forest trees partner with fungi that wrap the root from the outside. A mixed “one size” pack may list both — or the wrong one.

Read the label for type and crop. Store it cool and dry. Apply it against the root at planting.

This is not a species catalogue. Local forestry and horticulture advice still matters for unusual trees.

If forest seedlings die in sterile mix, missing the right partner is one cause among water, shade, and handling.

In this series

• Fungi need living roots, air, and moisture — a bag is not a soil
• Put inoculant next to the seed or the transplant root
• Too much phosphorus can turn the partnership off
• Host crops keep fungi; long brassica or fallow sequences starve them
• Tillage, compaction, and waterlogging break the network
• Match the fungus type to the plant — vegetables are not pines