Effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza and organic matter type toward growth and yield of sorghum on Oxisol Tuntang

Abstract

Utilization Oxisol as plant growth media for sorghum is still limited. The main problems of the cultivation in Oxisol are low pH, high soluble form of Al, Mn, Fe, low organic matter (OM) and lack of nutrients especially P. The purpose of the present research was to examine the effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) and OM type toward the growth and yield of sorghum on Oxisol Tuntang. The pot experiment was conducted in greenhouse using factorial completely randomized design with two factors of AM inoculation and OM type with three replications. The first factor was inoculation of AM: without and with AM inoculation. The second factor was OM type: without OM, elephant grass compost, cow dung compost, worm castings and goat manure. The inoculation of AM in interaction with OM significantly increased AM colonization, spore density, leaf number, dry weight, water uptake, P concentration, P uptake and grain mass. Interaction of AM with worm castings and interaction of AM with goat manure indicated the same higher effect on sorghum growth and yield, compared with the interaction of AM with elephant grass compost and interaction of AM with cow dung compost. The control treatment showed the lowest plant performance.