Use of Glass Fibre Material in Soil Mycology

Abstract

THE life of fungi in the soil has so far been studied mainly by indirect methods, such as isolation and pathogenicity experiments. Direct methods have been fewer and have included variations of the Rossi–Cholodny slide technique and examination of the soil itself¹. Investigation of the fate of fungi added to non-sterile soil has been limited by the difficulty of subsequent location of the fungi, except where the original inoculum produced or consisted of macroscopic structures such as sclerotia². As Garrett³ points out, the introduction into the soil of a fungus growing on a nutrient medium upsets the microbiological equilibrium; results obtained therefore are not a true reflexion of conditions in natural soil. Many fungi, including Phytophthora, can be cultured on sterilized soil; but this gives little indication of their ability to survive and spread under natural conditions⁴. In continuing my study of species of Phytophthora⁵, I have evolved the following technique for use in soil investigations.