The effect of botanical pesticide application and mycorrhiza on colonization of mycorrhiza, soil microbial communities, growth and yield of maize on Ultisols

Abstract

An experiment to study the effect of synthetic and botanical pesticide and arbuscular mycorrhizae (AMF) on mycorrhizal colonization, population of soil microbes, growth and yield of maize on Ultisols was carried out in green house of Agriculture Faculty, Universitas Padjadjaran at Jatinangor, Sumedang District, West Java Indonesia The experiment design used was Factorial Randomized Block, consisted two factors. The first factor was pesticide consisted five levels i.e. without pesticide; neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) pesticide; Annona muricata pesticide ; furadan and regent. The second factor was mycorrhiza consisted two levels i.e. without AMF inoculation and AMF inoculation. The experiment consisted two units with three replications; the first unit was harvested in the end of vegetative period to observe percentage of mycorrhizal infection, population of soil bacteria and fungi, fosfor uptake and dry weight of shoot, and the second unit was harvested in the end of generative period to find out the yield of maize. The results of this experiment showed that there was no interaction effect between pesticide and AMF on percentage of mycorrhizal infection, population of soil bacteria and fungi, fosfor uptake, dry weight of shoot and yield of maize. Pesticide decreased percentage of mycorrhizal infection and population of soil bacteria and increased yield of maize. Furthermore, AMF increased fosfor uptake and yield of maize.