Enhanced growth of micropropagated bulblets of Lilium sp. inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at different P fertility levels in an alfisol

Summary

The effect of three arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inocula at four available levels of phosphorus (8.41, 12.53, 13.63 and 14.6 ppm) in non-disinfected soil was studied on the growth, flowering, P uptake and root colonization in micropropagated bulblets of Lilium sp. (Asiatic hybrid ‘Gran Paradiso’). The inoculated bulblets fared significantly better than the uninoculated ones in terms of all the growth variables, namely size, weight, shoot length, number of leaves and leaf area, and in P uptake. However, bulblets inoculated with different AM inocula had optimum growth at different P levels. Bulblets inoculated with indigenous mixed vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza species (VAM I) and Glomus intraradices isolate 2 (VAM III) showed the best growth and early flowering at available soil P of 13.6 ppm, whereas those inoculated with Glomus intraradices isolate 1 (VAM II) showed higher growth at 2.5 ppm available soil P. Amongst the three tested inocula, VAM I promoted maximum shoot length, bulblet size, and weight at 13.6 ppm P. The bulblets under this treatment also flowered earlier, nearly a month before the uninoculated control ones.