Hmm, I think you’re in the wrong country. Maybe @Scientist knows?
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I’m certainly no expert, but i don’t think it makes a difference per say whether a compatible fungi used for this purpose is endo or ecto mycorhizzal. The key word there i believe is ‘compatible’. Both endo and ecto have the capability of sharing nutrients with plants, but not all are compatible with or interested in sharing with all plants. Maybe only a handful of species or genera, though some are more promiscuous than others…
Honestly because of that compatibility, I’ve always been a little skeptical of the mycorhizzal products being widely sold. To my knowledge there are generally no species listed on the packaging, so there is no way to really tell what plants the fungi will actually interact with. It may be that most of these offerings use some sort of very common, very gregarious species that interacts readily with multiple genera. But that just hasn’t been substantiated from what I’ve seen when it comes to these products.
As for non- mycorhizzal fungi such as wine caps, I’m sure there is a good argument for them in agriculture. Fungi and bacteria were afterall the original builders of soil on earth before terrestrial plants literally took root. Some have the capacity to unlock nutrients and minerals from non-organic materials after all!
So, sorry for that long winded reply just to say that no, I am not aware of an ecto mycorhizzal fungi that can easily be cultivated in the soil that will benefit our plants. But I’m always open to learning!
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Wy wife caught one (a squirrel) attempting to snag a blueberry from under the bird net today. The cat was there too, and didn’t give a damn about the blueberry😆
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I’m not very good at remembering to take pics as I go about my plot, but harvests occasionally inspire me.
My gherkins have gone mad.
On 4th Aug I got back from a week away having picked and pickled all the gherkins of any reasonable size before I went.
Below is what I picked on 5th Aug (BTW the yellow chopping board is 15" x 12")
5 days later, on 10th Aug, I picked some more
The next day I picked some more
Seeing as I still haven’t finished 2020’s pickled gherkins, I think I can stop pickling this year, now.
I usually only grow 3 plants but this year I went with 5 with the intention of picking them all much smaller - more like cornichons, or maybe a bit larger. I guess that plan didn’t work. 
BTW I started years ago trying to make dill pickled gherkins, but I just couldn’t grow dill in sufficient quantities. No matter what I did I never had a decent crop. So I tried tarragon instead, and I actually much prefer the taste. Hot spiced vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds and a sprig of tarragon in every jar. The smallest ones get pickled whole, the medium ones get sliced in half lengthwise, the large ones get sliced into 4-5mm rounds. Some are eaten every day, with lunch.
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This year my pickles are barely growing, but my dill just grows by itself from last year’s dropped seeds.
Trade ya!
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Nice idea but distance prevents, I suspect. And I really do recommend trying some tarragon pickles. (The left-over vinegar afterwards is also great for salad dressings.) I’m not sure I’d ever pickle them with dill again.
Sorry to hear about a disappointing crop. I grow my gherkins in a greenhouse, though a couple have escaped out of the window now. But then again it’s the hottest, driest summer we’ve had for decades. I grow them in large (15 inch?) pots, mostly, but the two extra this year went in the greenhouse bed which is much deeper, and boy are they rampant!
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Larval ladybugs are strict (and voracious) carnivores. I think this is not that.
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So I caught the culprit in the act.
The Pigweed Flea Beetle (Disonycha glabrata).
“The conspicuous Pigweed Flea Beetle is drawn to amaranth…” The window paning is extensive.
It’s really a wonder what the plant can endure.
But they are trying to flower.
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I never heard of the pigweed flea beetle before - maybe we don’t have them in UK.
But ‘normal’ flea beetles here attack things like radishes, assorted brassicas and the small holes in the leaves create no real impediment to growth once the plant is established. But your little bugger looks like a real pig if it destroys that much of the leaf!
These are the ones we typically have here:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/flea-beetles-on-brassicas-and-allied-plants
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He’s great. I love his illegal gardening videos, his broad knowledge of plant taxonomy, and that he’s like a Chicago stereotype
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Heh, Home Despot.
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I’ve been calling the big orange box this for years, or Home Desperado, depending on my mood. The other place is sometimes called Loathes because trips there inevitably result in credit card bills that take a few months to pay off.
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Back from a brief vacation. I’m sad to say that the squirrels noticed my absence.
One of my three apples is no more.
Cherry tomatoes and slicer tomatoes are looking great.
Gonna pick a melon later today
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yikes! WTF is this bug on my pigeon peas (gondules)?! approx 12mm /.5in white with wings? ants swarming up and down the stalk harvesting from these things, apparent egg casinings and white, scaley accretions in the stem nodes. aphids on steroids? this bush is two years old and we got a small harvest from it earlier in the season, was hoping for more robust pickings this fall.
suggestions for controlling them? soapy water? neem oil?
shakey cam pic:
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Not a great picture to go off. A sasquatch maybe?
My guess would be some kind of aphid, based on the honeydew description
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going to try soapy water and see. may have to go to the nursery for some Bonide (organic soap for bugs) and neem oil.
really big for aphids, but really, anything goes down here. don’t want to lose this bush. it is just now mature and should have 3-5 more years left and we love pigeon peas with rice. very Carribean dish with coconut milk and a touch of hot Jamaican curry!
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But 12mm big? No way, surely!
No idea what a ‘pigeon pea’ is but I assume it is perennial if you are concerned about losing it. Aphids are very rarely a ‘life or death’ threat to perennials in my (UK) experience.
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yes, it is perennial about 5-8 years and the peas are quite tasty. around here it is grown mostly by Bahamian, Haitian and Cuban folks and is almost alwsys cooked in with rice - “peas-n-rice” is on many an island menu.
this critter is very large for an aphid, so i do not know what it is, but a similar crusty white scale bug destroyed all of my beautiful hibiscus plants.
wiki on the gondules:
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