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PLANT GROWTH RESPONSES TO VESICULAR‐ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZA
Author(s) -
OWUSUBENNOAH E.,
MOSSE BARBARA
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1979.tb02299.x
Subject(s) - inoculation , biology , spore , endophyte , shoot , symbiosis , mycorrhiza , horticulture , agronomy , botany , bacteria , genetics
S ummary Onions, lucerne and barley were inoculated with one of two endophytes placed below the seed in a replicated field trial. After 13 weeks shoot growth was increased by 77% (onion), 79% (lucerne) and 33% (barley) with one inoculum and by four‐, six‐fold and 30 % respectively with the other. Lucerne and onion benefitted most from inoculation in the sub plots with most available P whereas barley responses were confined to those with less available P. The uninoculated plants reached approximately 45% infection from indigenous endophytes and the inoculated plants around 70%. Inoculation responses were not related to infection level. One introduced endophyte spored profusely and spread 22 cm from the point of inoculation, the other formed only few new spores; the indigenous fungi hardly sporulated at all. Spore production was little affected by host species or soil P level and was unrelated to percentage root infcetion. The rationale of field inoculation is discussed with particular reference to amounts of inoculum required.