Standardization of the Substrate Material for Large Scale Production of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Inoculum

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi hold considerable potential for use as inoculant and nowadays much attention is focused on mass production of AM fungal inoculum, since this is of paramount importance in improving plant production in agriculture and horticulture. However, effectivity of these fungi on crop growth relies on their production practices, typically the substrate selected for its mass multiplication. Therefore, as an initial step, this experiment was carried out to select a suitable substrate for the AM (Glomus intraradices) inoculum production using maize (PEHM 5) as a host plant. Six different substrates namely biochar, biochar + 10% soil, vermiculite, vermiculite + 10 % soil, vermicompost and vermicompost + 10 % soil were tested with an uninoculated control in pot culture condition for the production of AM inoculum. Maize plants rose in vermicompost + 10% soil with the presence of AM fungi significantly showed an increase in the shoot length, root length, root biomass and nutritional status (N and P) over those grown in other substrates. The results also showed that vermiculite + 10% soil substrate produced the greatest colonization rate (100%) and number of spores (726 / 50 g of substrate) compared to other substrates. Considering the results, it is suggested that vermicompost + 10% soil can be used as a substrate for large scale production of AM fungal inoculum.