Producing and evaluating some morphological characteristics of common pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) Mycorrhizal seedlings

oleh: Touran Feyzi Kamareh, Ramin Rahmani, Hasan Soltanloo, Mohammad Matinizade

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran 2017-03-01

Deskripsi

Regeneration of natural Pistachio forests of Iran distributed in arid and semi-arid regions have been disturbed by human activities and environmental stresses. One of the modern methods of reforestation in disturbed forests is utilization of mycorrhizal seedlings in reforestation projects. In this research mycorrhizal seedlings of common pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) was produced under environmental condition and fungi symbiosis effect on one year seedling growth characteristics were evaluated. At the first step, the most frequent species of arbuscular mycorrhizae were identified Funneliformis mosseae C. Walker & A. Schuessler (= Glomus mosseae T.H. Nicolson & Gerd.) and seeds of host trees were gathered for cultivation. After a growing season, some of the morphological characteristics such as stem length, collar diameter, shoot numbers and number of branches were calculated within 100 seedlings (50 seedlings per treatment) and compared with control. A significant different were observed between studied parameters (p < 0.01). Results revealed 60% stem length, 40% collar diameter, 67% bud number and 51% branches numbers increment in compare with control. The producing cost per mycorrhizal seedling was 2.3 times higher than non mycorrhizal seedling. Wasting percentage per seedling was 10% for mycorrhizal seedlings and 30% for non mycorrhizal seedlings. Significant correlation was observed between colonization percentage and morphological factors of pistachios seedling. These results have a sharp message for utilization of mycorrhizal seedlings in rehabilitation project of this species.