Effects of ectomycorrhizal inoculation and the type of substrate on mycorrhization, growth and nutrition of containerised Pinus pinea L. seedlings produced in a commercial nursery

Abstract

Spore inocula of Melanogaster ambiguus (Vittad.) Tul. & C. Tul., Pisolithus tinctorius (Pers.) Coker & Couch, Rhizopogon luteolus Fr., Rhizopogon roseolus (Corda) Th. M. Fr. and Scleroderma verrucosum (Bull.) Pers., and two substrates (a mixture of peat-vermiculite and a mixture of peat-composted pine bark) were evaluated for producing mycorrhizal Pinus pinea L. seedlings in a commercial nursery in NE Spain. Inocula of all fungi were effective to obtain containerised mycorrhizal P. pinea seedlings although seedling mycorrhization rates were reduced in the peat/pine-bark mixture. Neither inoculation nor the type of substrate modified the first-year growth of seedlings. Rhizopogon spp. increased the levels of N and P and, in general inoculation reduced the concentration of Mn in needles. Symptoms of chlorosis were detected in all seedlings growing in the peat/pine-bark mixture, probably due to nutritional deficiencies caused by the substrate high pH. Among the fungi tested, R. roseolus is proposed as the best candidate for its application in nursery inoculation programmes destined to produced containerised mycorrhizal P. pinea. © INRA, EDP Sciences, 2005.