Pretransplant inoculation with VA mycorrhizal fungi and fusarium blight of cotton

Abstract

Cotton seedlings were raised in small plastic cups containing sterilized sand or unsterilized soil, and inoculated separately with Glomus mosseae or Glomus uilraradices. After 4 weeks growth in cups, seedlings were transplanted to pots containing 6 kg unsterilized soil. Some plants were then infested with Fusarium vasinfectum at the time of seedling transplanting. The treatments were: Glomus mosseae only, G. intraradices only, Fusarium vasinfectum only, G. mosseae and F. vasinfectum, G. intraradices and F. vosinfecium, control. Plants were harvested 60 days after transplanting. The final dry matter yields of plants inoculated with VA mycorrhizal fungi were significantly higher than uninoculated plants. Fusarium blight in cotton plants infected with F. intraradices was as severe as in non-mycorrhizal plants. However, it was less severe in cotton plants infected with C. mosseae than in non-mycorrhizal plants. Infections of cotton by G. mosseae and G. intraradices were not affected by F. vasinfectum.