Tillage, compaction, and waterlogging break the network

The useful part of the fungus is a fine thread through pore space. Deep inversion, a spinning tiller on wet ground, and machinery pans smash that space. Water that sits in the bed also starves fungi of oxygen.

Root diseases then meet a weaker, more open root. Fungi are one part of plant health, not a spray.

Open drainage, add organic matter from the surface when you can, and till only when the job truly needs it. Leave living roots.

If a bed crusts and yellows every wet season, fix air before you buy another biological product.

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