INFLUENCE OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI ON GROWTH AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE OF SOME VEGETABLE

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the net house of the Department of Plant Pathology, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from May 2006 to December 2006 with a view to study the role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on growth and nutrient uptake of vegetable crops(Brinjal,Tomato,ChiJIi,Okra and Data). Significant positive growth response to AM was observed in all the selected vegetables. The seedling emergence, plant height, shoot length and root length of inoculated vegetables were comparatively higher than that of uninoculated control. Mycorrhizal fungi inoculation significantly enhanced disease reduction in all the treatment compared to control plant. In case of Okra the incidence of damping off and foot rot were )0.78% and 6.48% in noninoculated plant whereas 4.52% and 3.24% in inoculated mycorrhizal plant respectively. No leaf spot disease in inoculated plant was found. Mycorrhizal dependency (MD) of the vegetables ranged from 15.58% to 31.38%.Among the vegetable studied the "highest mycorrhizal dependency (31.38%) was observed in Brinjal and the lowest MD (15.58%) was observed in Chilli. Okra recorded the second highest MD (26.82%) which was followed by Data (24.79%) and Tomato (18.56 %). N, P, K, Zn and Fe uptake were. influenced significantly by the inoculation of AM fungi over control in all the tested vegetables.