Impact Assessment of Different Level of Mycorrhiza on the Growth Parameters and Nutrient Content of Capsicum annum

Abstract

Soil microbes play an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and their availability to plants, which is important for sustaining soil health and agricultural sustainability. In light of this, vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) plays an important function. Hyphae of VAM can reach far beyond the plant root zone, allowing it to obtain nutrients from a considerably larger region of soil. Mycorrhiza improves plant nutrition by facilitating the uptake of minerals such as phosphorus and immobile trace elements such as zinc, cobalt, magnesium, iron, copper, molybdenum, and others. Mycorrhiza improves plant growth, productivity and yield by increasing the rate of photosynthesis. In the present study Glomus fasciculatum was tested on Capsicum annum plant with different inoculum levels (100, 150, 200 and 400 chlamydospores/kg soil) and found that Plant height, Root length, Dry weight of root and shoot, NPK content, per cent mycorrhizal colonization and sporocarp number were maximum when 400 spores were used for inoculation and minimum were found in untreated plants. SPAD chlorophyll content was highest at 90 DAT among all the observation periods.