Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) Inoculation on the Performance of Tomato Nursery Seedlings in Vermiculite

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the responsiveness of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) seedlings to arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation in a soilless medium on the transplant production performance. The tomato variety RODADE was inoculated with BIOCULT mycorrhiza granules (consisting of both Glomus etunicatum & G. intraradices) and hydroponically grown on vermiculite for six weeks. Measurements on the tomato seedlings taken at 14, 28 and 42 days included shoot and root fresh weight and dry weight, leaf area, stem length, leaf area ratio (LAR), relative growth rate (RGR), unit leaf rate (uLR), mycorrhiza dependency (MD) and growth response to arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi root inoculation. AM fungi inoculated seedlings exhibited better transplant performance due to its higher shoot fresh weight (avg. 11.28 g plant-1), high shoot/root ratio (avg. 0.236), higher root biomass (avg. 2.17 g plant-1) higher RGR (7.34 mg g-1 day-1) and ULR 1.28 mg cm-1day-1). AM inoculation resulted in 23.3% root colonization by the fungi in the vermiculite medium. The use of AM fungi appeared to provide benefits to the development of tomato seedling transplants in a soilless nursery condition and might be of particular interest under organic farming conditions. © 2010 Friends Science Publishers