Earlier this year, the kind people at Plantworks sent me some samples of Rootgrow to try in the Garden from Scratch. Rootgrow is an organic product which increases plants’ strength by multiplying their root systems. More roots means more food, means a happier plant. It works by using friendly mychorrizal fungi which are necessary for the development of healthy roots. Once in the ground and in contact with a plant’s roots, the fungi develops an enormous secondary root system, which helps your plants and crops grow bigger and happier.

So that’s the claim, anyway. But how did it fare when I tried it in my garden? I decided to trial it with my ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes, my ‘Delica’ pumpkins, and two rose bushes.

Out of the three ‘San Marzano’ cordons I grew, two had Rootgrow sprinkled into their planting hole, and the third did not. In every other way these plants were treated in the same way. And the results were very interesting indeed. ‘San Marzano’ is known to be a heavy cropper anyway, but the two treated plants produced an abundance of fruit, while the third remained weaker, and eventually toppled over. We had to ripen its fruit inside.

I planted one pumpkin using Rootgrow, and the other without. Again, heavier crops on the Rootgrow pumpkin. But I have yet to see any discernible difference between the two ‘Ena Harkness’ rose bushes which I planted, one using Rootgrow. It might take a little longer to see results in a shrub, so I’m not giving up hope just yet.

Would I use Rootgrow again? Normally I prefer to create my own self-sustaining system within the garden, creating my own fertilisers and pest repellents. The only garden product I bought this year was a packet of nematodes to fight slugs, and even then I was a little reluctant. But if I were gardening on poor soil, Rootgrow would be a great way of giving my plants a head start. A small packet goes quite a long way, which is a relief as it is not particularly cheap, and the results seem pretty impressive.