Effects of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal infection in first, second and third cereal crops

Abstract

SUMMARYThe effects of inoculation with the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Olomics mosseae(Nicolson & Gerdemann) Gerdemann and Trappe, fumigation of soil with methyl bromide, and addition of superphosphate (up to 60 kg P/ha) on growth and phosphorus nutrition of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Highbury) were investigated in two experiments (in 1980 and 1981 respectively) on plots that had been fallowed and recently limed.Fumigation severely reduced natural levels of infection, and slightly reduced yield of above-ground dry matter in both years. In 1981 a decrease in grain yield of about 25% was accompanied by an increase in growth of straw. Plants on fumigated plots contained appreciable amounts of bromine in shoot tissue.Inoculation increased and added P decreased infection in all treatments. In 1980 inoculation had little effect on above-ground dry matter, but it increased concentration of P in shoots especially on plots without added P. In 1981 added inoculum increased yield of grain on fumigated plots by about 0·75 t/ha at all levels of added P, but had little effect on non-fumigated plots, though responses in grain production to added P were similar with and without fumigation. Increases in yield resulting from inoculation were generally accompanied by increases in concentration of P in plant tissue.Winter barley was sown on the plots after their use for spring wheat, without further application of the fumigation, inoculation or phosphorus treatments used in those experiments, to determine any residual effects on mycorrhizal infection and on growth. The levels of mycorrhizal infection on non-fumigated, inoculated plots were relatively constant in successive crops, although numbers of propagules of mycorrhizal fungi increased significantly with time for all treatments. Infection levels on fumigated and non-inoculated plots increased in successive crops, so that the relative effects of fumigation and of inoculation declined with time.The effects of inoculation on infection levels persisted for longer than those on yields, suggesting that maximum effects of mycorrhizal infection on growth did not require the maximum levels of infection found in the roots. Harvest yields continued to respond to applied phosphorus even when uniformly high levels of infection had been established, suggesting that the ability of the root system to absorb phosphate was not greatly increased by mycorrhizal infection.