An Assessment of the Benefits and Period of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Plant Growth Regulation and the Level of Fertilizer Influential Tomato Development (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

Data on tomato fitness improvement by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) remain patchy. The present study was initiated to evaluate the effect of the period of AMF inoculation as well as the level of mineral manure on tomato growth. The experiment took place from June to October 2016, in the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use greenhouse. AMF inocula were applied to seeds and/or transplants, each receiving three different levels of chemical fertilizer. The impact of the inoculation period and the level of fertilization, were assessed on plant growth parameters, including height, number of functional leaves, root-collar diameter, and root length. Observation of hyphae, arbuscules and vesicles was carried out by roots staining method and anabled the determination of mycorrhization parameters. Plants Mycorrhizal dependence was assessed with their fresh and dry mass. An analysis of variance and post ANOVA analysis was performed using the Newman-Keuls test (P= .05) for the comparison of means. The findings pointed that, when transplanting, the difference between mycorrhized plants and non-mycorrhized ones was very highly significant in terms of the height of the stem (P= .00), the length of the taproot, and the root collar diameter. The lower the level of manure was, the higher the frequency of infection has been (73.33% for MS1 and MSR1; 76.67% for MR1).Transplants growing without a supply of mineral manure expressed greater mycorrhizal dependence (66% for MSR1). Arbuscular mycorrhization of the tomato is profitable for its optimal development. The endomycorrhization of tomato can be done during sowing or transplanting with the same benefits but, with a low level of fertilizer. So, it’s necessary to controll the intake of mineral manure because it influences the natural mycorrhization of plants.