Impact of Different Glomus Species on Growth and Survival of Acacia nilotica Seedlings

Acacia nilotica (L.) Willd. ex Del, commonly known as babul, kikar belongs to family Leguminosae and is recognized as a multipurpose tree. It helps in improving soil fertility, increasing the activity of symbiotic microorganisms and providing various commercial benefits. The raising of high quality kikar seedlings is necessary to establish a good plantation and the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in soil becomes imminent in raising of seedlings under nursery. The effect of three different species of Glomus spp. (G. mosseae, G. intraradices and G. fasciculatum) of AMF inoculated soil with Acacia nilotica seeds were observed in the nursery during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. These AMF were applied at 400-500 sporocarp/kg of soil at sowing time and evaluated for their performance on the growth parameters, survival percentage, root colonization (%) and number of sporocarps. The experiment was laid out as completely randomized design, replicated three times with twenty seedlings per replication. The results revealed that among three Glomus species, the shoot length of 60.75 (2018-2019) and 59.80 cm (2019-2020) was the significantly high in soils inoculated with G. intraradices as compared to check (uninoculated). The root length of seedlings was also significantly higher when seeds were sown in soil inoculated with G. intraradices followed by G. fasciculatum inoculated soil. The plant biomass was recorded significantly high when seeds were sown in soil infested with G. intraradices (23.77 g) followed by G. fasciculatum (21.57 g) and minimum in the G. mosseae (20.20 g) among Glomus spp. during 2019-2020. The seedlings survival was 81.53 and 85.79 % in soils inoculated with G. intraradices followed by 74.65 and 79.01 % in G. fasciculatum during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, respectively and all the treatments differed significantly as compared to check. A significant higher root colonization (20.35 and 19.16 %) and number of sporocarps (28.0 and 26.51 /per 100 g of soil) at 150 DAS were recorded in soils inoculated with G. intraradices followed by G. fasciculatum.