Selection of Potential Isolates of <I>Pisolithus albus</I> on Growth Improvement of <I>Eucalyptus tereticornis</I>

Abstract

In the present investigation, 6 different isolates of P. albus collected from 6 different Eucalyptus plantations zones of Andhra Pradesh viz., Anantapur (isolate-1), Tirupati (isolate-2), Kavali (isolate-3), Paloncha (isolate-4), Tirumala (isolate-5) and Achutapuram (isolate-6) were applied to clonal plantlets of Eucalyptus tereticornis in order to determine the effect of each isolate on the growth improvement of the plants. In this study, the treatments with the fungus recorded significantly greater plant height, root length, shoot and root biomass and collar diameter over uninoculated (control) plantlets. The maximum growth of plants of Clone 2 was recorded in the treatment with Isolate-5. In Clone 1 better growth performances was observed when inoculated with Isolates 1, 3 and 5. Similarly, Isolates 1, 2 and 5 improved the growth parameters of Clone 3. Least growth was recorded in the plants treated with Isolates 4 and 6 but it had significantly better growth than the untreated control plants.