Response of sandal (Santalum album Linn.) seedlings to shade and mycorrhizal association
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Date
2002
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Department of tree physiology and breeding, College of Forestry, Vellanikkara
Abstract
The occurrence of sandal- Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)
associations in natural sandal growing forests and the response of sandal seedlings to
inoculation with commonly available cultures of AMF, shade levels and nature of
hosts were investigated in a pot culture experiment at the College of Forestry, Kerala
Agricultural University, Vellanikkara. Two important sandal growing regions in the
state, Marayoor (ldukki district) and Wadakancherry (Thrissur district) were
selected for this study and a non-sandal growing area in Thrissur district was
selected as a control for the soil studies .
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The result showed that characters like height, number of leaves, leaf
area and shoot weight of sandal seedlings increased due to the Arbuscular
Mycorrhizal Fungi inoculation and maximum response was observed for seedlings
grown in soils inoculated with Glomus mosseae. The characters like collar girth,
root weight did not show any significant difference for the mycorrhizal inoculation.
It was further observed that the interactions between shade and mycorrhizae were
the best under 50 per cent shade level especially for those seedlings inoculated with
Glomus mosseae.
During the initial seedling phase, high shade (75 per cent) is needed for
sandal, but during the later stages of seedling growth, medium shade (50 per cent)
resulted in best growth of seedlings. Growth of sandal seedlings with two host
species, casuarina and redgram was on par. The relative water content and plant
water potential were higher in seedlings inoculated with AMF. The N, P, K content
of the shoot of sandal seedlings were maximum for seedlings inoculated with
Glomus mosseae.
Sandal seedlings collected from natural sandal growmg regions
investigated for the presence of sandal-AMF association revealed that the roots of
sandal seedlings from Wadakancherry forest showed 33 per cent of colonization,
while the seedlings from Marayoor forest showed no colonization. Sandal seedlings
grown for four months in the soils collected from these two regions showed superior
growth when compared to those seedlings grown in soils from the agricultural lands
of Thrissur, but no AMF colonization was observed in the roots of the sandal
seedlings .
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Citation
171972