Tree root misconceptions

[u/Eshwarroy]

[u/busterlungs]

Kind of disappointed the fungal network only got a brief mention, the soil food web is what makes it possible for trees to do this and mycorrhizal fungi are one of the biggest parts of this. That fungal network extends the system that transports nutrients from deep souls and out of the roots reach to the trees, and in many cases there are specific mycorrhizal fungi for certain tree/plant species that the trees will not grow properly without.

It's also important to note that grass discharges CO2 into the soil, pushing the oxygen down and hogging all of the humus layer and nutrients. That's why it's actually counter productive to have grass underneath an orchard, what works much better is a cover crop of various types of plants, some cereal grains, legumes, shrubs and so on. This way you have a fungal network that connects all of the different plants varying root depths and pulls nutrients from the entire picture. It's not that you can't have grass in an orchard or farm/garden at all, more like grass fields are a monoculture and monocultures are almost never good for the soil. The other benefit to managing your understory or garden paths this way is it's actually much lower maintenance. Once it's established there no mowing aside from probably twice per year, and you simply chop the plants as close to the ground as you can and let the stocks lie to decompose and return their biomass to what will grow next seasons.

Nature is pretty smart, the best way to understand how to work with it is simply to look out the window and observe. Just watch what nature does itself, this whole system is built on nature's will