Mycorrhizal dependency and growth response of A. chinensis (Osbeck) Merrill and Pongamia pinnata (L.) pierre in soil media with low pH and high aluminium

Abstract

Silica sand post mining has low nutrient soil, acidic soil pH (3.2), hight Al content (7.70 cmol/kg) which are the limiting factors of plant growth. Therefore, soil quality might be improved by the addition of soil ameliorant and fertilizer application. MycoSilvi is consortium of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi and Mycorrhizal helper bacteria (MHBs). This study was aimed to analyze the dependence of plants against FMA contained in MycoSilvi. There are three variants of MycoSilvi, both single or in combination with soil ameliorant to enhance Albizia chinensis (Osbeck) Merrill and Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre growth. The research design was a factorial sheme with two factors, MycoSilvi (M) consists of four levels (M0=Without MycoSilvi, M1=MycoSilvi variant 1, M2 = MycoSilvi variant 2 and M3 = MycoSilvi variant 3) and Soil ameliorant (LC) consisting of four levels (L0C0 = Without soil ameliorant, L1C0 = Lime, L0C1 = Compost, L1C1 = Lime and Compost). Data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Dry weight of shoot and root, top root ratio, percentage of mycorrhizal colonization, growth response and the relative dependence of mycorrhiza were observed after 12 weeks of planting. The results showed that combination of MycoSilvi and soil ameliorant can made dry weight of a shoot, root and top root ratio better than all treatment. Whereas the best growth response and mycorrhiza dependency was shown in MycoSilvi variant 3 without lime and compost (M3L0C0). The results showed that A. chinensis and P. pinnata plants had a high degree of dependence on FMA for their life force.