Full Length Research Paper

The effect of endo-mycorrhiza (VAM) treatment on growth of tomato seedling grown under saline conditions

Hakan BAŞAK¹, Köksal DEMİR², Rezzan KASIM³* and F.Yeşim OKAY²

¹Ahi Evran University Vocational School, Department of Greenhouse Production, Kırşehir, Turkey.

 ²Ankara University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Horticulture, 06110, Dışkapı, Ankara, Turkey.

³Kocaeli University, Department of Postharvest Technology, 41285, Kartepe, Kocaeli, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: Rezavajdi@Gmail.com or R.vajdi@m-iau.ac.ir Tel: +989144040886. Fax: +984112880480.

Accepted 1 November, 2010

 Abstract

This study was carried out in order to determine the effects of various study doses of mycorrhiza treatment on morphological characteristics and color quality of tomato seedlings (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) which are grown under 100 nM salinity stress. Two different types of tomatoes “Aspendos F₁” and “Donna F₁” were used in this study. Mycorrhiza treatment was performed by using ROOTS-novozymes endo-mycorrhiza fungus (VAM) to obtain 10, 50 and 100 mycorrhiza plants^-1. VAM treatment prevented the decrease in the length of the plants caused particularly by high level soil salinity, both in Aspendos and Donna species. In both species, the height of the plants which are grown under salt+M50 and salt+M100 conditions became bigger than the control plants and the plants grown under salt conditions. Furthermore, high mycorrhiza treatment also increased the weight of fresh stem and root but had no particular affect on dry stem and root. While chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll quantities of the mycorrhiza treatment with M50 and M100 doses grown under salt conditions were found to be high in comparison to control and salt treatment, carotenoid level was found to be low. Conclusively, mycorrhiza treatment to tomato seedlings which are grown under salt conditions was caused to have seedlings grown by preventing negative effects of salt, and provided a high quality growth and which kept the green color of the seedlings.

Key words: Color, mycorrhiza, Lycopersicon esculentum L., seedling length, root length, weight.