Scenes from Funga’s 2026 Inoculation

Jenna Luecke

Nov 3

2 min read

We’ve wrapped on another season of inoculation! Every year, our team travels to our partner PRT Growing Services nurseries across the Southeast and inoculates tree seedlings with beneficial soil fungi that will attach to the tree roots and help these trees grow for years to come.

Starting the season under a double rainbow—we’ll take that as a good omen. 🌈🌈

Sydney hiking in a tropical mountain landscape.

Inoculation brings together members of our team who don’t usually see each other on a daily basis, and are happy to reunite for a few weeks of hard work and shared memories. Below are team members from Texas, Arkansas, Montana, and Tennessee.

Calibration is everything. We’ve tested and refined our process to ensure that each seedling gets the perfect dose, enough to effectively establish the fungi in the soil without wasting any inoculant.

Team Funga is no stranger to tackling day-of challenges. Equipment troubles, delivery delays, weather—we’ve seen it all!

Safety is always our number one priority when doing field work. We train our team on working with equipment to apply the inoculant, ensure use of PPE, and we have a check-in/check-out system to notify the team whenever someone is on the road.

Microbiome Scientist Caylon Yates (pictured below) leads inoculation testing throughout the year, helping us improve our methods as we scale.

Nursery Research Coordinator Lily Gannon (pictured below) returns to her natural habitat, becoming one with the seedlings.

On the last day of inoculation we had some special guests, Funga’s Board of Directors! The nursery manager set the group up with a “hay ride” and chauffeured them around for a tour of the site.