Mycorrhizal Inoculants: Production & Use

Mycorrhizal inoculants are sold for everything from tomato transplants to forestry seedlings, but their quality and usefulness vary widely. This course explains how arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal inocula are produced, from pot culture and root organ culture to simple on-farm systems, and how producers and buyers can check that propagules are alive and infective. It then covers application methods, compatibility with fertilisers and pesticides, and the site conditions under which inoculation tends to make a measurable difference.

As the bio-input market grows and regulatory requirements tighten, nurseries and growers need to tell sound products from optimistic marketing. The course suits nursery managers, growers and input producers who want to make informed decisions about producing, buying or using inoculants. A recurring theme is reading field trial evidence critically rather than relying on product claims. For the final project, students design a small, properly replicated trial to test an inoculant in their own crop or nursery system, including untreated controls, colonisation checks and a plan for interpreting the results.