Question about fungal amendments to soil

[Mugsie]

I've been reading recently that it benefits the plant to add mycorrhizal fungi to the soil. Have any of you found this to be true? Is it needed? If so, what brand do you recommend. Amazon has multiple brands listed so is one better than another? Also, do you add granular fertilizer to the pot as well? I thought orchids needed a fertilizer specifically formulated for orchids as they were unable to utilize the nitrogen in its regular form. Am I correct in this assumption?
Thanks all.

[Lil Duck]

Originally Posted by Mugsie

Amazon has multiple brands listed so is one better than another? Also, do you add granular fertilizer to the pot as well? I thought orchids needed a fertilizer specifically formulated for orchids as they were unable to utilize the nitrogen in its regular form. Am I correct in this assumption?
Thanks all.

I believe that most orchid growers use a water soluble and then water the orchid with fertilizer solution instead of using slow release fertilizer. It's a lot harder to control the amount of fertilizer delivered to the plant with granules or pellets.

I have heard good things about Quantum Orchid.

[Roberta]

Remember, epiphytic orchids don't grow in soil. They also, in most cases, require very little fertilizer because they grow slowly. There are a few that grow faster that can benefit from a boost of time-release fertilizer during the growing season, this is the exception not the rule. Ask 10 orchid people about fertilizer and you are likely to get 12 answers. But if you think about how they grow, you realize that the nutrients that they get washing down from the canopy are very dilute. Under-fertilize your orchid and it will grow more slowly but can still thrive. Over-fertilize it and you may kill it. Lil Duck is spot on - the dilute fertilizer solution gives more control. And while nitrogen from ammonia and nitrate may be more efficient, they can also benefit form the nitrogen from urea. In nature, they have to get their nitrogen from rotting organic matter, so clearly they do have the biome to utilize it.

[Ray]

As far as the commercially-supplied mycorrhizae are concerned, as far as I have been able to tell, there are none that are known to "match up" with orchids as symbiotically as those in nature. The plant species-fungus species relationship is apparently quite specific.

That said, it is possible that some fungi form mycelial networks capable of distributing water and nutrition more uniformly around the container, which may have benefit.

One of the simplest things to try is a bit of Brewer's yeast, as it has been used in some plant probiotics, however a regular dose with probiotic bacteria definitely is beneficial.