Mycology

Fungi, from soil symbionts to cultivation.

• Nov 3, 20265 min

  Inoculating Beans in Salt-Affected Soil: A Greenhouse Result, Not a Field Recommendation

  A greenhouse pot experiment in Ethiopia tested rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, alone and combined, with organic matter and three rates of NPSB fertilizer on faba and haricot beans in sodic and saline soils. Inoculation and organic matter significantly affected growth parameters after 60 days; the best fertilizer level varied by soil and crop. The study reports no grain yield and no field data, and the authors call for field trials. The abstract gives no effect sizes, replication numbers, or mechanism.

• Oct 28, 20265 min

  A soft tick's microbiome, described but not explained

  An exploratory study compared two independently generated 16S rRNA datasets from Otobius megnini collected in Querétaro and Comarca Lagunera, Mexico. Both datasets contained Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Coxiella-like organisms, and some diversity metrics differed between them. The authors state plainly that dataset identity was confounded with tissue type, 16S region, host replication, life stage, feeding status and laboratory processing, so the differences cannot be attributed to geography. The network and pathway results are described as hypothesis-generating.

• Oct 22, 20265 min

  A two-season maize trial in Kenya found NPK hard to beat, and mycorrhizal fungi hard to judge

  A two-season randomised field trial in Taveta, Kenya compared AMF, organic manure, NPK and their pairwise combinations on maize. NPK gave the highest pooled grain yield and the best short-term economic return, and adding AMF to NPK did not significantly improve yield over NPK alone. Treatment-by-season interactions were not significant for yield or biomass, though root length did vary by season. The trial was small: one site, one cultivar, two seasons, and no reported root colonisation data.

• Oct 21, 20266 min

  Diatomaceous Earth Added Nothing to Maize Yield in This Trial, and the Soil Bacteria Were Sampled Once per Treatment

  A field trial in acidic Ecuadorian maize soil compared no input, conventional fertilizer, and fertilizer plus diatomaceous earth. Only grain yield was tested statistically: the two fertilized treatments were statistically similar and both beat the unfertilized control, so the amendment added nothing measurable. Soil bacterial profiles came from a single composite sample per treatment at each time point and were reported descriptively, with no inferential testing. The paper is explicit that it is a baseline for future work, not a demonstration that diatomaceous earth changes soil bacteria.

• Sep 30, 20265 min

  A Strawberry Blight Trial We Cannot Actually Read

  The topic describes a protected-cultivation trial in which a foliar microbial consortium suppressed Phomopsis leaf blight in strawberry and changed plant biochemistry. None of the thirteen sources provided is that trial, or any trial on strawberry or Phomopsis. What the sources do support is the general plausibility of the mechanism, and a well-documented gap between biocontrol results in controlled conditions and results in the field.