Water, water everywhere .....

Those of us who live in the Garden of England sometimes worry for the future of the traditional English Garden.

The weather experts tell us that we are suffering from one of the driest years on record. Rather worryingly, if this trend continues, 2007 could prove to be a tricky one for gardeners and they are warning that many thousands of pounds may be lost by buying plants that go on to die due to a lack of water.

Many of us have also had to work without the benefit of using hose pipes and the traditional way of using high inputs of water and chemical fertiliser simply will not work since the nutrients do not have water in which to move in the soil towards the roots of the plant.

Thankfully, Mother Nature does have a solution. Which, if you think about it stands to reason - after all how do plants grow quite happily in deserts? Methinks we can learn something from studying plants in those environments.

Our boffins at Rootgrow have carried out studies into survival mechanisms and one of the most important is an entire group of friendly fungi called mycorrhizal fungi that live on the roots of virtually every plant on the planet.There is now much scientific evidence to support the fact that mycorrhizal fungi can provide a reliable natural mechanism for plants to enhance drought tolerance. Plants shown to benefit include tomatoes, roses, corn, ornamental flowers and trees.

In reduced water conditions these fungi enable the plants to function for longer and extract the maximum amount of water remaining in the soil. The fungi exude a sticky glue-like substance in the soil which hosts many beneficial bacteria as well as building the soil structure and keeping it close to the plant roots - which is important for nutrient uptake.

The benefits to the plant of its friendly fungal partner actually increases as the drought conditions get more severe. These fungi are symbiotic organisms and can not survive without a host plant. Therefore it is in the fungi’s ‘interest’ to keep its host plant alive at any cost.

So there you have it - Rootgrow is the natural solution for hosepipe bans!