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Leucaena leucocephala seedling response to vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation in soils with varying levels of inherent mycorrhizal effectiveness

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Summary

The symbiotic effectiveness of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi present in widely differring tropical soils was evaluated in a greenhouse experiment. Small volumes of field soil, a standard inoculum (Glomus aggregatum) or both were introduced into a fumigated sand-soil medium amended with nutrients for optimum VAM activity. Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit var. K8 was grown in the medium as an indicator plant. VAM effectiveness was monitored as a function of time by determining the P status of pinnules. The soils differed from each other with respect to the time their endophytes required for the expression of initial and maximum effectiveness and in the level of maximum effectiveness they exhibited. The effect of mycorrhizal inoculation, calculated as the ratio of the areas enclosed by the effectiveness curve of G. aggregatum to that enclosed by the effectiveness curves of test soils, was found to be a good indicator of the response of L. leucocephala to inoculation of soils with G. aggregatum

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Hawaii Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Journal series No. 3285

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Habte, M., Fox, R.L. Leucaena leucocephala seedling response to vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation in soils with varying levels of inherent mycorrhizal effectiveness. Biol Fert Soils 8, 111–115 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00257753

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