Full Length Research Paper

The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on yield and stem rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. in peanut

Hulya Ozgonen¹*, D. Soner Akgul² and Ali Erkilic³

¹Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Faculty, Suleyman Demirel University, 32260, Isparta, Turkey.

²Manisa Viniculture Research Institute Manisa, Turkey.

³Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Faculty, Cukurova University, 01330, Adana, Turkey.

 *Corresponding author. E-mail: hozgonen@ziraat.sdu.edu.tr.

Accepted 7 December, 2009

   Abstract

The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) against stem rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. in peanut were investigated. The mycorrhizal fungi used were Glomus etunicatum, Glomus mosseae, Glomus clarum, Glomus caledonium, Glomus fasciculatum, Gigaspora margarita. In pot experiments, mycorrhizal fungi decreased infected plant ratio between 17.5 - 84.0%. G. caledonium showed the highest effect by 84.0%. The AMF decreased the disease severity between 37.8 - 64.7%. The effect on disease severity of G. caledonium and G. clarum were 63.3 and 64.7%, respectively. In field trials, the effect on disease locus of mycorrhizal fungi ranged between 30.6 and 47.2%. G. caledonium showed the lowest effect with 30.6% while the other mycorrhizal species had the same effect. G. etunicatum and G. caledonium increased the yield by 24.3%. The results show that AMF fungi could effectively be used against stem rot caused by S. rolfsii.

Key words: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Glomus sp., Sclerotium rolfsii, peanut, yield.