BBC - Earth - Plants talk to each other using an internet of fungus. Everyone Should Read This Popular Treatment

 This is the heavy duty version.

BBC - Earth - Plants talk to each other using an internet of fungus:



"No, we're not talking about the internet, we're talking about fungi. While mushrooms might be the most familiar part of a fungus, most of their bodies are made up of a mass of thin threads, known as a mycelium. We now know that these threads act as a kind of underground internet, linking the roots of different plants. That tree in your garden is probably hooked up to a bush several metres away, thanks to mycelia.
The more we learn about these underground networks, the more our ideas about plants have to change. They aren't just sitting there quietly growing. By linking to the fungal network they can help out their neighbours by sharing nutrients and information – or sabotage unwelcome plants by spreading toxic chemicals through the network. This "wood wide web", it turns out, even has its own version of cybercrime.

Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi. The 19th-century German biologist Albert Bernard Frank coined the word "mycorrhiza" to describe these partnerships, in which the fungus colonises the roots of the plant.

Fungi have been called 'Earth's natural internet'

In mycorrhizal associations, plants provide fungi with food in the form of carbohydrates. In exchange, the fungi help the plants suck up water, and provide nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, via their mycelia. Since the 1960s, it has been clear that mycorrhizae help individual plants to grow.

Fungal networks also boost their host plants' immune systems. That's because, when a fungus colonises the roots of a plant, it triggers the production of defense-related chemicals. These make later immune system responses quicker and more efficient, a phenomenon called "priming". Simply plugging in to mycelial networks makes plants more resistant to disease.

But that's not all. We now know that mycorrhizae also connect plants that may be widely separated. Fungus expert Paul Stamets called them "Earth's natural internet" in a 2008 TED talk. He first had the idea in the 1970s when he was studying fungi using an electron microscope. Stamets noticed similarities between mycelia and ARPANET, the US Department of Defense's early version of the internet.

Film fans might be reminded of James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster Avatar. On the forest moon where the movie takes place, all the organisms are connected. They can communicate and collectively manage resources, thanks to "some kind of electrochemical communication between the roots of trees". Back in the real world, it seems there is some truth to this."



'via Blog this'

For the Birds - Their Habits Are Habit-Forming

People wonder about the stumps in my front and back yards.  I just dug two more in the back. They are simply a luxury I installed for the birds.

Bugs and worms will thrive under them, as the soil fungus begins its attack of the bottom of the stump.

The main attraction is the watch-tower they provide for bug-hunting. I see birds using the stumps all day long, always leaving their marks. The stumps are also handy for filling rose vases.

Birds also love to perch in safe places. In the bird-feeding area, I pour rainwater on three living perches. Two are Butterfly Bushes. One is a Pokeweed. Bushes are also landing zones for insects, so they feeders as well. The bushes provide shade for us, since they are between our house and the baking, setting sun.

 Norma Boeckler's Bluebird

Sunset provides a lively animation each evening. The shadows of birds on their swing play upon the wall behind my computer. I constructed two swings for two windows where feeders are hanging. Each swing consists of a six feet of metal rod hanging from small chains on each end.

Birds move from the bushes to the feeders to the swing - all day long. They are noisy eaters, chattering happily about their food, so they attract other birds. Rosecrested Grosbeaks joined the happy throng recently:

1. Grackles
2. Cardinals
3. Starlings
4. Common Finches
5. Goldfinches
6. Chickadees
7. Mourning Doves
8. Woodpeckers

Food, Shelter, and Water

Most of the food we provide is natural, from the mulched areas to the various plants and stumps that host insects or grubs.

The shelter comes from various bushes, trees, and vines. One bird nests in the vines hanging on our porch. The vines cover half of the picture window in front - our self-cleaning, redneck curtain.

I keep a lot of baths full of fresh water. In fact, I moved one away from the house and among the other baths. As soon as I filled it, a robin landed on the edge and began its bath, watching me warily.

God made birds to be extremely careful of anything new. If they were as sociable as puppies, there would be no birds left. 

Those who first begin to feed birds are disappointed about the deserted food. Birds may wait several weeks before they eat from a new source. Their habits also work in our favor. Once trust is established, birds carry out their daily tasks a few feet away from us. 

Most of God's Creation is hidden from us, partly by our failure to notice, but also by protective cover. As often mentioned before, no one realized the enormous influence of fungus until recently. 

I understand that some examples of fungus are thousands of acres in size, so we cannot claim they are too tiny to see. We are likely to watch 200 movies on eagles before we see a single one about the majesty, size, and power of fungus.

Fungus has probably cured one of your infections and given you a longer life. 

Many parts of God's Creation are like angels, unseen and yet at work to help us. We used to warn Little Ichabod, "You are wearing out your guardian angels. Safety first."

Creation Gardening - Various Arguments against Some Accepted Practices

Blackberries are blooming where I once only had weeds.
One weed is left - the others have fled.

I have been watching natural gardening and farming videos lately, but the best insights come from Gabe Brown. He has a combination of experience and scientific data to confirm his practices. When I walk around the neighborhood with Sassy, I see examples of various agricultural felonies.

 I have a much larger tree stump collection now,
and I bring home rotten wood from our morning walks.
Logs and stumps promote birds, bugs, and toads.

Bare Soil
Gabe Brown calls crop residue, cover crops, and mulch "soil armor," a good term. When the soil is bare, as it often is among gardeners, the surface heats up to 150 degrees in the summer. That destroys life in the soil while drying up the earth and the plant.

Wide-row planting and French intensive gardening (similar approaches) both use the concept of plants as living mulch.

Bug-Huggers Are Smart Gardeners and Farmers
Call me lazy, but I would rather attract pest eaters than try to kill pests with various poisons. Many of my plants are scattered around the front and back yards to host beneficial insects - and spiders.

• Daisies 
• The Clumping Mints - Mountain, Cat, Monarda
• Spirea
• Chaste Tree
• Clethra
• Cone Flowers
• Sunflowers
• Dandelions and other deplorables 

Crops Enrich the Soil
Those of us who have changed neglected areas into productive gardens have learned that plants enrich the soil. Brown states that 75% of the organic matter in soil comes from roots.

Root systems are unseen and therefore unheralded. They grow down to fantastic depths, often following worm tunnels, and change the soil by this action, but also by shedding organic matter all the time. The most astonishing work of roots is to set up fungal networks for sharing nutrition and water among many different plants.

The plants' shedding leaves (not to mention dead insects) will also benefit the soil. A bad weed can be tossed into the compost area or left in the deep shade of bushes to become compost. Leaves are the best way to improve soil for free - adding carbon and various nutrients from the soil and sun.

Depleting the Soil with Neatness
Many gardening and farming habits deplete the soil. With good intentions:

1. Plant residue is gathered up. 
2. Leaves are raked away. 
3. Soil is tossed and turned, as if the best thing would be to destroy the fungal networks repeatedly.

These are a few of the roses harvested for our chiropractor
last year - no chemical fertilizer, no toxins.

Water Infiltration Is a Major Issue

If the soil repels rain and snowmelt, the result is muddy flooding. A big rain is not only wasted, but the best soil is eroded away.

Creation methods open up the soil to let rain and snowmelt soak in, and also to hold the topsoil during 12 inch rains, which do happen. Therefore, soil armor prevents droughts and floods.

The Soggy Mess Is Blooming
Confession - this spring our front yard was a brown soggy mess of wet mulch, tree stumps, and the thorny silhouettes of roses. Lawns were green from excess rain. We only had sprigs of weeds popping up.

But now - drum roll - the older roses are all starting to bloom. Four orange Easy Does It roses are packed with color. They show up a block away, as I look back from Almost Eden. I cut a Veteran's Honor rose for one neighbor and Easy Does It for the altar and another neighbor. Yellow, pink, white, and red roses add to the display daily.

 How many bugs live the in the Crepe Myrtle?
The Cardinals nesting there enjoy the bugs and later the seeds
from the bush.