MYCORRHIZAL FUNGUS (GLOMUS MOSSAE) INOCULATION EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE AND ROOT BIOMASS DEVELOPMENT OF CACAO SEEDLINGS IN THE NURSERY

Abstract

Inoculation of young cacao seedlings during the early stage of development with efficient arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) strain provides several benefits that enhances optimum establishment in fields after transplanting from nursery. A field nursery experiment was conducted to evaluate the responsiveness of cacao (F 3 amazon variety) seedlings to different levels of arbuscular mycorrhizae (Glomus mossae) inoculation in a potting medium. Parameters taken at termination of the experiment includes; plant height, leaf number, stem girth, leaf area, shoot and root fresh weight and dry weight, mycorrhizal dependency (MD) and growth response to arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi inoculation. Result from the study showed that AM fungi inoculated seedlings at level of 50g and 100g exhibited better transplant performance due to its higher plant height (34.24 and 37.89cm), higher leaf number (11.70 and 12.67), higher stem girth (0.67mm and 0.75mm), higher leaf area (51.38cm 2 and 59.45cm 2),higher shoot fresh weight (7.42g and 9.98g), higher root fresh weight (6.48g and 6.77g), higher shoot dry weight (3.17g and 3.88g), higher root dry weight (1.17 and 1.21g) and higher fresh root/shoot ratio (0.87 and 0.69). While application of mycorrhizae at 50g level, recorded the highest level of Glomus mossae colonization (81.4%).