Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza on Oil Palm Seedling Growth and Development of Basal Stem Rot Disease Caused by Ganoderma Boninense
Basal stem rot (BSR) caused by Ganoderma species is the most serious disease of oil palm. Infection by the fungi causes significant loss in yield, often resulting in the palm's death as the disease progressed. Oil palm is a mycotrophic plant. Under natural conditions, the plant is often col...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/10563/1/FP_2001_19_A.pdf |
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| Summary: | Basal stem rot (BSR) caused by Ganoderma species is the most
serious disease of oil palm. Infection by the fungi causes significant loss
in yield, often resulting in the palm's death as the disease progressed.
Oil palm is a mycotrophic plant. Under natural conditions, the plant is
often colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. The current study
carried out aimed to evaluate the role of AM in enhancing growth and
development of oil palm seedlings and to examine the possibility of using
this fungi as a biocontrol agent against basal stem rot (BSR) disease
caused by G. boninense. A greenhouse trial was carried out to determine the optimum AM
inoculum density for maximum plant growth and AM root colonization. The
palms were inocu lated with 6 levels of AM inoculum (m ixed species of AM
spores, extramatrical hyphae and infected root segments of Setaria
ancep) viz. 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 g inoculum/plant. Resu lts obtained
showed that 40 g inoculum/plant gave maximum growth and percent AM
root colonization at 3 months after inoculation. This inoculum level was
subsequently used in further experiments. A study was conducted to
evaluate the effect of AM on plant growth and development. AM
association significantly enhanced palm growth in terms of plant height,
total leaf area and dry matter production. Physiological processes such as
relative water content, photosynthetic rate and total root phenolic contents
were also significantly improved through AM symbiosis. In contrast,
stomatal resistance was significantly decreased. AM formation also alters
root morphological characteristics. The effect was more profound in the
tertiary roots . N umber and length of tertiary roots were respectively 63-105% and 26-113% higher in mycorrhizal than in control palms. |
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