The growth response of
Calopogonium caeruleum, a leguminous covercrop in plantation agriculture, to inoculation with two vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi was
investigated in five phosphorus (P)-deficient soils supplied with various levels of rock phosphate. Significant shoot yield
increases over the uninoculated controls were obtained in most sterilised or unsterilised soils at all applied P levels, although
the inoculant VAM fungi differed in their effectiveness in the soils used. Responses in mycorrhizal root infections, P and
nitrogen (N) concentrations in tops and plant nodulation varied. The results are discussed in relation to the edaphic environment
of the mycorrhizal association.
Key words
Calopogonium caeruleum
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Glomus fasciculatum
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Glomus macrocarpum
- inoculation with VAM-fungi - P-deficient tropical soils - rock phosphate