The farmer's market mushroom guy changed how I repot everything

Last Saturday in Portland, this older grower watched me repot a fern and handed me a chunk of mycelium, said 'roots like company, not crowds.' I tried mixing a little into my potting soil and my spider plants have pushed out new growth in like 9 days. Anyone else mess around with soil inoculants or is that just a mushroom cult thing?

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the_robin1mo ago

My experience has been the exact opposite with that stuff. Tried a commercial mycorrhizal blend once and my plants just sat there, no visible change for weeks. The fern in the same batch did fine but the others stayed sluggish, so I stopped bothering with inoculants all together. That mushroom guy sounds like he knows his craft, but I think plain old compost or worm castings give you better results for less fuss. Roots do like space and airflow, not necessarily a bunch of microbial company crammed in with them. If your spider plants are happy, that's great, but I would not call that a rule for everything you repot.

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