We were going to start this post with a long fungi joke, but we ran out of shroom to type it.

PSA for all our green thumbs in the audience: check out the bottom of this post for ways to get more green.

On this week’s deep-dive, we talk about:

🍄 Why you should grow fungi, not plants

For the last century, we’ve spent too much time growing plants.

Sure, plants and trees directly supply most of the world’s calories, and we need them around. Without them, we’d starve.

But over time, they’ve distracted us from something more substantial. Like any good magic trick, we fell for the performer’s illusions.

If you can see past the sleight of hand, you’ll unlock the secrets to growing more food with less work. Whether you’re a small backyard gardener or a 1000-acre farmer doesn't matter.

Growing Plants Without The Magician

We see plants as isolated organisms. We grow a tree, and we harvest fruit. To get more fruit, we need to plant more trees.

Since the late 19th century, our agricultural efforts have zeroed in on that hypothesis. Industry experts identified the ‘basic needs’ of the plant kingdom: Water, sunlight, a few nutrients, and space to grow.

To make our work easier, we kicked everything else to the curb. We created mechanized tilling to increase planting efficiency. We invented synthetic pesticides to dampen disease rampages on single-crop farms. We refined fertilizers down to three ingredients: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK).

There are some notable pros to our global food experiment. For example, over 80% of the world didn’t have access to sufficient calories before this agricultural revolution. Nowadays, most people have a surplus (we’ll get to quality in a sec).

Oversimplification came with a cost. We paid the price with topsoil, nutrient density, and soil fertility. Today's average crop has 40% fewer nutrients than 50 years ago. We lose topsoil 12x faster than we replenish it.

We can put more plants in the ground, yet we’re getting less out of them. The experiment wasn’t a failure, but it wasn’t a success, either.

Thanks to modern researchers picking up on discoveries made in 1885, we have an answer to our problems:

Our hypothesis omitted the mastermind living beneath the scenes — fungi.

Why Fungi Are ‘Steroids’ For Plants

Placing plants and fungi in different kingdoms might help scientists write a textbook, but it doesn’t help people grow better food.

Plants aren’t isolated organisms in the same way humans aren’t. Our bodies are factories operated by trillions of minions (bacteria and fungi) that keep systems running.

If you strip us of our microbiome, we won’t survive — much less thrive.

Plants are no different. If you dissect a plant growing in fertile soil, you won’t just see one organism. You get multitudes.

At the heart of all of them are fungi called mycorrhizae, whose organs aren’t only around the plant’s roots; they’re within the plant. 

Mycorrhizae are like plants’ digestive tracts. They can navigate hard-to-reach places with ‘roots’ much thinner than a plant’s. Using digestive enzymes, they pull minerals and other nutrients from rocks, dead organisms, and otherwise useless dirt.

They deliver these nutrients to plants in exchange for the sugars produced by photosynthesis.

They can provide up to 80% of a plant’s nitrogen, all of its phosphorous, and most other minerals like zinc and copper.

Mycorrhizae aren’t limited to delivering nutrients, either. They determine a plant's fruit's shape, color, and sweetness. They’ll even influence the number of pollinators that buzz by the plant with which they’re connected.

How can you reap the rewards of these sneaky fungi?

Growing Fungi First, Plants Second

A fungal-first focus transforms farming from a practice of growing plants to one of growing soil. Field tests with fungal inoculation show us that with vibrant soil, we don’t need pesticides or annual fertilization. Plants grow faster and produce more with less work.

If you want to see it in action, check out this clip from a 1000-acre farm reaping the benefits (fast-forward to 12:30 if you’re in a rush).

Whether you’re a backyard gardener or a large-scale farmer like the one above, a few methods ensure you’re supporting the underground magicians we call fungi.

1. Use no-till. Cultivating and exposing soil kills mycorrhizal fungi. Don’t turn over your soil ever.

2. Cover cropping. ‘Weeds’ are just opportunistic plants. Nature’s modest. Cover her up. Nitrogen fixers and dynamic accumulators earn bonus points.

3. Inoculate with fungi and bacteria. Turn compost into compost tea, and water your plants with it. When you plant something, take dead leaves from under an old tree and place them beneath the new plant’s roots.

Have stories about cultivating fungi? Reply and tell us all about it!

See you next week, fellow earthlings.

— Permacultured

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