I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers...Dr. Robby

Now here's the kicker: plants are sacrificing some sugars to the fungi for the fungal services, but what happens if the nutrients are not in any deficiency in the soil. In other words, what if you as the gardener are capable of constantly providing enough nutrients to the soil so that the plant is never really lacking. In this scenario, a plant that has a mutualistic relationship with a mycorrhizal fungus is now sacrificing sugar that could be used to make new plant parts to the fungus for no added benefit. This is generally the case for plants grown in pots. Mycorrhizal fungi will give the greatest benefit to plants living in the ground and not in pots. This makes sense when you think about it though. The mycorrhizae help the plant explore the soil for nutrients. When a plant is in a pot, the roots cannot really explore much and the nutrients generally have to be provided to them.

Hey Christopher...Mycorrhizae are fungi that form a symbiotic relationship with many, many plants. There are three main types: Ericoid mycorrhyzae, endo-, and ectomycorrhizae. Ecologically speaking, a mutualistic relationship means that both parties will benefit. In this case the fungi will get sugars from the plant and the plant will get more nutrients (usually phosphorus) from the fungi. These fungi associate themselves with the plants roots and will essentially increase the surface area that the roots are exposed to the soil. In addition, the fungi have a few tricks up their sleeves to make nutrients more available for absorption. You can inoculate your soil with these fungal spores, but they more or less are found naturally in nature. Many plants cannot thrive without them now. In fact acid rain has a detrimental effect on the growth and infection rate of these mycorrhizae and many scientists feel that trees suffer more from lack of mycorrhizal infection than from the acid rain itself.

Hey Christopher...There are many organic ways to control pests. There are also some non-toxic sprays that you can use to control pests. Horticultural oils and pesticides with potassium salts are generally safe to use on plants that are meant for consumption. (BE SURE TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ANY PESTICIDE SINCE MANY OF THEM ALSO HAVE CHEMICALS IN THEM THAT ARE BAD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.) You can also introduce some predatory insects to your garden. The most famous of these are lady bugs. Lady bugs are voracious predators of aphids, but they can sometimes simply fly away when you introduce them to your garden. As for eradication/genocide vs. control, it is almost always impossible to eradicate the pests from your garden. For the most part, the best you can hope for is to maintain a low population of pests. You can achieve this naturally by growing leafy perennials around your garden. This is a good place for natural pest predators to lay in wait so they can prey upon your pests when the pest population increases. Growing carrots (although not a perennial) is a great way to introduce natural predators to your garden. Carrots and plants in the same family as carrots generally have highly dissected leaves which give great hiding spots for predators. If you want quick results I would recommend using a non-toxic pesticide, but if it's a sustained predator population you're after, you may want to look into predator introductions and growing plants that will naturally host them. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers, Dr. Robby

Hey Eric...By chance do you know what cold hardiness zone you are in? Moringas do best in zones 9 through 10. Also, they can easily be overwatered. They prefer dry, sandy, well-drained soils. Chances are you may be overwatering your Moringa. If you are questioning whether or not to water, I would suggest you let the soil dry out a bit further. In fact you can let your Moringa dry out enough that you let the tree let you know when it's time to water by when its leaves start to wilt slightly. That would be my best guess of what is going wrong right now: overwatering. Let me know if you don't think that is the case and we'll try to get down to the bottom of this. Cheers...Dr. Robby

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Happy Gardening! --Dr. Robby

For your final question (plant food vs. plant fertilizer), those terms are synonymous, but I must state something to maintain my scientific integrity. The fertilizer companies will use the term plant "food" because it is a vernacular term, and the average gardener may associate with food better than fertilizer (especially if fertilizer conjures up the thoughts of manure, which is smelly and gross in some people's eyes). Technically, plants make their own food when they photosynthesize. The plant "food" you buy at the store is more like plant "vitamins". These nutrients help the plants to grow up big and strong. The same thing goes for people. If we don't get a good amount of vitamins all the time we would not be as healthy as if we were getting our vitamins all the time. If you provide your plants with their "vitamins", they will be healthier in the long run than if you did not provide them with any.

If you have a specific plant in mind, I would recommend checking out the EasyBloom database. If there is any unique or slightly different fertilizing techniques required for a plant, the database will have information available for you.

Now, when it comes to knowing how often and how much to fertilize, I would very strongly recommend following the instructions on the packaging of the fertilizer. You can definitely fertilize too much. Many gardeners will suffer from the thought: "if a little fertilizer works well, a LOT of fertilizer will work great!" Unfortunately, this is not how it works. A gardener can kill their plants by providing too much fertilizer. The fertilizer companies know this and have been careful to recommend the right fertilization rates.

Fertilizer companies will usually have the basics covered when it comes to plant fertilizers. For example: all-purpose fertilizer, acid-loving fertilizer, slow-release fertilizer, organic fertilizer, etc. The preceding fertilizers generally have all of the major players in the plant nutrients world. These include nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and several more. There are also specific nutrients that you can provide to your plants: chelated iron, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc. (Chelated iron is a form of iron that is bound to an organic compound which makes it more soluble in water and therefore more accessible to the plant.)