Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Inoculation Enhances Suppression of Cucumber Fusarium Wilt in Greenhouse Soils

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to study the plant growth and fruit yields of cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.) on a greenhouse soil with or without inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMFs) and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucu-merinum under unsterilized conditions. Two AMF inocula were tested: only one AMF strain Glomus caledonium 90036 and an AMF consortium mainly consisting of Glomus spp. and Acaulospora spp. There were four treatments including no inoculation (control), inoculation with F. oxysporum but without mycorrhizae (FO), inoculation with F. oxysporum and G. caledonium (FO+M1), and inoculation with F. oxysporum and the AMF consortium (FO+M2). Cucumber plants were harvested at weeks 3 and 9 after transplanting. Compared with the control, the FO treatment without AMF inoculation had less biomass both at weeks 3 and 9 ( P < 0.05) and had higher incidence of Fusarium wilt and produced no cucumber fruit at week 9. Both FO+M1 and FO+M2 treatments had higher mycorrhizal colonization than the treatments which received no AMF inoculation at week 3 ( P < 0.05), but only the FO+M2 treatment elevated plant biomass, decreased the incidence of Fusarium wilt, and improved cucumber yields to the same level as the control at week 9. The results indicated that the AMF consortium could suppress Fusarium wilt of cucumber and, therefore, showed potential as a biological control agent in greenhouse agroecosystems.