I have a 3-4 year old red pine I’m growing from a seedling in a wooden grow box and moved the box today and noticed that the underside is covered in a white film. I have several other plants in grow boxes but no other pines and the red pine is the only tree with the film on the grow box. I am doubting this is mycorrhiza but am wondering if this is something that’s indicating a problem or if is just a part of the ecosystem. Pictures of the bottom of box, soil at surface and needle mass.
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Yes. Yes it is.
IMHO
Healthy tree microbiom…
God job… Thats exactly what I want to see on my pines.
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I see you use organic fertilizer. That’s WHY it is there. Digesting the food so the tree can access the N P K and micronutrients so your tree can use. Probably bacteria. Probably some very small bugs too, nenatodes.
May just be the wood being digested, too. Not a bad thing… The tree WILL find the nutrients…
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May not be the exact SYMBIOTIC fungi and bacteria that this specific Red pine wants buddy up to, but, NOT a bad thing. The tree WILL find a happy medium.
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The tree looks green and healthy.
Go with it ; until you get different information that YOU see as better…
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Bonsai On!
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Thanks kurtp. I was hoping this was at least a neutral thing and based off of the healthy foliage I didn’t think I had any reason to really worry. Appreciate your input.
With my pines that I have in bowls, I can also see that under every bowl on the wooden boards on which they are standing I think that pines need this symbiosis, it is particularly good to see with these I have had this since the beginning and have not had any bad experiences with it so don’t worry, it’s more desirable
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