Determination of substrate medium for litchi marcot establishment in nursery

Abstract

Vermicompost contains a large amount of micro- and macronutrients and also promotes the soil growth potential of beneficial rhizosphere microbes, including plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF). Vermicompost is known to be a suitable media for gardening and farming in addition to supplying nutrients regularly. Litchi was selected as a referral host for the mass inoculum production of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) because of its high affinity with symbionts. Of seven varieties of litchi, the variety Ref. II showed higher colonization and spore population, that is, 98% and 25 spores/g dry soil, respectively. The test plants treated with AM fungi in the mixture of soil and vermicompost (1:3 ratio) showed the best performance in terms of root dry matter (2.5 g) and root volume (22.5 ml) after 3 months of plant growth. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization and spore populations were also found to be influenced by the treatments.