By Raymond Aspinall

Daybreak Scheresky Mill

We carry a soil supplement that enhances the plants root system to take up more nutrients thus creating a healthier plant and  thereby improving the potential for more productivity with a higher nutrient content.  It can reduce the amount of fertilizer needed as the multiplication of root hairs allows the plant to access more what is there already. Reduce costs and improve plant health by using Myke Pro.

Myke Pro, technically called glomus intraracides mycorrhizal fungi, is a highly concentrated fungi that is compatible with most agricultural crops. It is produced in Canada by Premier Tech, one of the primary producers of the fungi in the world. Myke Pro is a proven product that has been used extensively in both organic and conventional field crops. It has been studied and tested extensively by agricultural research stations in places like Brandon, Man.; Swift Current, Sask.; the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada; the Wheatland Conservation Group in Swift Current, and at many universities in the U.S.A.

Myke Pro is a beneficial fungi that seeks out and establishes a relationship with a plant, to keep itself alive so that it may reproduce. It can only have a relationship with a plant that will accept and feed it from above with sugars and energy, namely what the sun does through photosynthesis. In exchange, it will reach into the soil with 'hyphae' (branching filaments that make up the mycelium of a fungus) and provide a transportation system back into the root of the plant. The fungi's main job is to make phosphorus available that is otherwise unavailable — and to some extent nitrogen — and transport it into the plant through the hyphae, using energy from the sun to keep it alive. Phosphorus does not move readily in the soil; a plant has to seek it out on its own, but Myke Pro ventures out, finds it and brings it in. It also feeds the plant with all minerals and makes more water available due to the vast hyphal network that can be built in a season. Hyphae are microscopic and can in one season provide a network of up to one square metre of fungi-reproducing spores, building more hyphae to provide transportation of nutrition into the plant. Results of tests conducted by Central Testing Lab showed, without exception, that all grains with Myke Pro carried more minerals than those without. When using Myke Pro, phosphorus input must be reduced so the fungi can do its job.

The fungi will develop a relationship with all plants except the brassica family, i.e. canola, mustard, buckwheat, lupins, camelina, etc. When it attempts to attach to the root of a brassica, the plant will not acknowledge it and it will thereby starve and die. Black summer fallow will also kill it, as there is not a plant to feed it from above. It's why we must reapply the fungi on our cultivated land. It was starved out for so long during the years of homesteading when summer fallow was the norm. That said, however, it is still found in wild prairie that has never been turned, and in original forest land.

A single application while seeding is all that is required for the season, as it will continue to expand and multiply until the plant is taken away. At that time, since it's autumn and the ground is cooling off, it will harden, winter over, and come alive again in the spring, seeking a plant with which to develop a relationship. There may be some spore loss; the extent is not known for sure but depends a lot on the growing conditions in the fall after harvest, and also how late the harvest may be.

Myke Pro on all nitrogen-fixing plants develops a relationship with the plant but also helps the Rhizobium with the nodulation. As it takes phosphorus to build nodules, and the fungi is bringing the phosphorus to the plant, some research has shown an increase of 200% in nodulation.

Myke Pro is known to increase drought resistance, increase disease resistance, assist in overcoming soil salinity, increase yields and improve crop quality.

The fungi give off a sticky substance called glomalin, which builds soil aggregation and in turn improves the soil structure and microbial activity. The USDA has said it is responsible for up to a third of the carbon sequestration in the world.

Myke Pro products are compatible with most insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

Myke Pro comes in two forms, one is an inoculant with a diatomaceous earth-carrying agent that needs to be coated on the seed, so running it into a fill auger while loading a drill does a very good job. The second is granular, which needs to be applied in the seed row and works very well in a third tank or a tank that will run at about six pounds per acre down a spout with the seed. The price is pretty much the same either way.

Premier Tech has been around for about 80 years in the peat business, 15 years in horticulture and only recently in the agriculture field. The fungi has been in the horticulture side for some time but, again, only recently introduced into agriculture. What it does in horticulture has been viewed and studied very extensively. There is so much confidence in Myke Pro that if you buy trees and shrubs from a garden centre and use it in your yard, your purchase is guaranteed. 

It belongs in the ground. Put it back there and watch the amazing results.

Phone 1-306-927-2695 for southern Sask. Raymond Aspinall /and 1-306-468-2667 for Northern Sask. Lester Wyatt

For more information, contact us at raymond.aspinall@sasktel.net