Document Type : Full research articles
Authors
1
Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, El-Beheira, Egypt.
2
Forestry and Wood Technology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt.
Abstract
The woody legume known as Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) is found all over the globe. Its rapid growth and
capacity to fix nitrogen (N2) with rhizobia are the main contributors to improve its ecological, physiological, and commercial significance. Leucaena is an appropriate species to serve as a model for other woody legumes because of these traits. Therefore, its symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungus has attracted a lot of interest. Plant stress responses can be mediated by vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (VAM) symbionts via increasing stress tolerance. The study was carried out in a greenhouse at the private nursery in Itay El-Baroud city and the Laboratories of the Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, in collaboration with the Laboratories of the Soil and Water Development Center, Damanhour, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt, over two consecutive seasons, 2020 and 2021. This study was conducted to determine the effect of dual inoculation with endomycorrhizal fungi (VAM) and Rhizobium (R) bacteria on the growth and minerals of the leaves in seedlings of Leucaena in the presence and absence of rock phosphate, management of the stimulatory or antagonistic relationship of symbiotic factors (VAM and R). The experimental design was a split -plot system with five replications on randomized complete block design (RCBD). Rock phosphate a rate of 1.5 g/1 kg soil fertilization and inoculation treatments with symbiotic-type (ST) (VAM, R, VAM+R and R+VAM) were distributed at random within the main (2 treatments) and sub-plots (5 treatments), respectively. The results showed that, when fertilized seedlings with rock phosphate (RP) as a natural source of phosphurs for plants were compared to unfertilized ones, shoot height, shoot growth rate, chlorophyll content, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content increased. In terms of the effect of the symbiotic agents, inoculated seedlings outperformed uninoculated ones in all growth parameters, particularly those dual inoculated with R+VAM. In conclusion, R and VAM inoculation together with rock phosphate had synergistic effects on Leucaena growth, especially when it was inoculated with (R)) first then with (VAM), when compared to single inoculation.
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