Inducing tolerance to the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus vulnus by early mycorrhizal inoculation of micropropagated myrobalan 29 C plum rootstock

Abstract

The beneficial effects of early mycorrhizal inoculation with two arbuscular fungi, Glomus mosseae (Nicol. and Gerd.) Gerd. and Trappe and Glomus intraradices Schenck and Smith, were evaluated on Myrobalan 29 C (Prunus cerasifera x Prunus munsoniana Wight and Edr.) plum rootstock in soil infested or noninfested with the root lesion nematode Pratylenchus vulnus Allen and Jensen under microplot conditions. During this two year study, mycorrhizal colonization did not affect the number of nematodes per gram of root in plants infected with P. vulnus. In contrast, P. vulnus significantly decreased the percentage of mycorrhizal root colonization. Most elements were within sufficiency levels for plum by foliar analysis, although low P and deficient Fe and Cu levels were detected in P. vulnus treatments. Early mycorrhizal inoculation with G. mosseae favored plant growth after 20 months, but in soils infested by P. vulnus, only G. intraradices increased the tolerance of Myrobalan 29 C plum rootstock to damaging nematode levels by stimulating plant nutrition and vegetative growth.