ROLE OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL (AM) FUNGI ON GROWTH AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE OF SOME LEGUMES

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the net house of the Department of Plant Pathology, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural Unive~lty, Dhal?a during the period from May 2006 to December 2006 with a view to study the role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ~i\M) fungi on growth and nutrient uptobe of some legumes. A positive growth responseto AM was observed in all the selected legumes. The seedling emergence, plant height, shoot length and root length of inoculated legumes were comparatively higher then that of uninoculated control. The mycorrhizal inoculation suppressedroot rot, damping off and leaf blight disease of BARI Mungbean and suppressedroot rot, damping off, leaf blight and leaf spot disease of Lentil and ChicRpea. The inoculated plants showed early flowering and fruiting in comparison to uninoculated control. Mycorrhizal root colonization differed among the crops ranging from 20.00 to 49.75% and mycorrhizal dependency varied from 8.85 to 55.22%. Increasednutrient (N, P, K, $, 8 and Zn) uptal?e was recorded with the inoculated plants. Among the inoculated legumes comparatively higher N, P and K nutrient uptal?e was observed in Pigeonpea, Cowpea and ChicRpea respectively; where as S in Pigeonpea, B in Cowpea and Zn in Soybean.