The Symbiosis That Pays: What Your Crops Give, and Get, from Fungi

Most farmers think of fertilizers, herbicides, and seed treatments as the tools that help grow a successful crop. But few inputs deliver as much value for as little effort as the ancient biological partnership between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF). This relationship isn’t just a scientific curiosity; it’s a proven, high-return investment in plant health, root structure, yield, and profit.

Understanding what crops give to fungi, and what they get back, makes it clear why every serious grower should be putting biology to work beneath their boots.

The Hidden Exchange Beneath the Soil Surface

When a seed germinates and sends out its first roots, it doesn’t just anchor into soil, it signals. The young plant releases sugars, amino acids, and other compounds through its root exudates. These exudates attract mycorrhizal fungi, which respond by growing toward the root and forming a physical connection, penetrating the root’s outer cells and colonizing within the root system..

This is the beginning of a symbiotic partnership. The plant feeds the fungus with carbohydrates. In return, the fungus expands the root’s access to nutrients and water, far beyond what the plant could reach on its own.

This isn’t just theory; it’s biology that’s been working for 450 million years.

What the Crop Gives: Sugars and a Place to Grow

Mycorrhizal fungi don’t photosynthesize. They can’t make their own energy. Instead, they rely on host plants to provide the carbohydrates they need to grow. In some crops, up to 20% of photosynthesized sugars are sent directly to the fungi colonizing their roots.

This might sound like a heavy tax, but it’s more like a business partnership. The plant gives away a portion of its energy in exchange for services it simply can’t perform on its own:

• Access to bound-up phosphorus
  
• Delivery of micronutrients like zinc, boron, manganese, sulfur, iron, and copper
  
• Increased water absorption
  
• Greater resistance to stress and disease
  

In well-colonized plants, the return on this investment is more than 3:1.

What the Crop Gets: A Bigger, Better Root System

The most immediate benefit crops receive from fungi is root extension. Fungal hyphae act like thousands of extra root hairs, exploring soil pores that roots can’t reach.  The PSI on normal rootes is 250-350 while the hyphae is 1000psi!  They can stretch from 4 inches to 2 feet from the root, increasing the plant’s nutrient absorption capacity by 100 to 400 times in the upper soil profile.

Crops treated with mycorrhizal fungi routinely show:

• More nodal roots at deeper levels
  
• Increased stalk diameter
  
• Greater leaf area in all stages of growth
  
• Improved ear placement and kernel fill(often preventing the ear from flexing down thus adding two more rows of kernels)
  

These traits aren’t just good biology, they’re directly linked to higher yields and better fertilizer efficiency, resulting is a more profitable farm.

Fungi Help Crops Handle Stress

One of the most valuable benefits of mycorrhizal fungi is how they help crops deal with tough conditions. When water is limited, their hyphae reach into soil micropores to pull in moisture. When nutrients are scarce, they solubilize bound-up minerals and deliver them directly to the plant.

Fungal networks also produce glomalin, a sticky compound that binds soil particles and improves structure. This helps hold moisture in the soil, improves oxygen flow to roots, and increases overall biological resilience.

Farmers using mycorrhizal inoculants often report:

• Less drought stress
  
• Improved nutrient use efficiency(less fertilzer input costs)
  
• Greater uniformity at harvest
  
• Reduced need for reactive treatments
  

These benefits aren’t one-time boosts, they accumulate over time as soil biology rebuilds.

A Payback That Lasts Beyond One Season

While some inputs are applied and gone by the next rain, mycorrhizal fungi can persist in the soil, colonizing crop after crop, if the soil conditions are right. In reduced-till or no-till systems, the fungal networks remain intact and functional between seasons, cutting the need for repeated applications and allowing the biology to build on itself.

Some growers using New Age Farming’s MycoMaxx blend have phased out or reduced rates of applications after 5–7 years, not because the fungi stopped working, but because their soil now has a stable population giving the soil the ability to function naturally.

That’s a return on investment you can’t get from any other biological.

Symbiosis in Action: Field-Proven Results

In Nebraska trials, corn treated with MycoMaxx showed an average nodal root count of 44.4, compared to 37.6 in untreated controls. These plants had thicker stalks, better ear placement, and improved resistance to green snap and late-season lodging.

More roots mean more access to water and nutrients. More energy in the plant means more sugars to feed the fungi. The cycle reinforces itself and the yields follow.

This is what modern biological farming looks like. It’s not all about abandoning inputs. It’s about using biology to make every input go farther and making the farm profitable and sustainable.

You’re Already Growing the Crop. Let Fungi Grow the Roots.

You don’t need to change your seed.  It doesn’t matter what soil type. You don’t need to overhaul your fertility program. You just need to give your crop the fungal allies it was meant to have.

New Age Farming’s proprietary blend(MycoMaxx) of eight species is designed for compatibility with corn, wheat, soybeans, and many more. Apply in-furrow or as a seed treatment, and let the symbiosis begin.

What your crop gives to the fungi is small. What it gets in return is yield, efficiency, and resilience.

That’s a trade worth making.

Sources

Petersen, Mike. “Trip Report of the VT Crop Stage Plots.” Soils Consultant Report, Wood River Interchange, 2022.

Kise, Sam. “New Age Farming and the Power of Mycorrhizal Fungi.” Future Farmer Magazine, March-April 2023.

Soil Food Web School. “The Magnificent Mycorrhizal Fungi.” soilfoodweb.com.

Field, K. J., et al. “The Role of Mycorrhizal Networks in Plant Nutrition.” New Phytologist, vol. 229, no. 1, 2021.