Effect of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal association on 'S 1' mulberry (Morus sp) at nursery stage

An experiment was conducted during 1995-97 to study the effect of VAM inocu lation on survivability, growth characters, leaf yield and phosphorus uptak e in 'S 1' mulberry saplings at nursery stage. Data of 41/2 - month - old m ycorrhized saplings revealed that except leaf moisture, leaf and root dry-m atter, others were found to be significant at 1% level and indicated increa se in survival by 10.4%, plant height by 5.7%, leaf area by 11.8%, root len gth by 9.8%, number of lateral roots/plant by 56.1% and plant dry biomass b y 27.4% over control. Phosphorus uptake was also enhanced by 13.5% and tukr a infestation was found considerably less (8% only at +1 scale) compared to non-mycorrhized saplings. Since the overall performance of mycorrhized sap lings was better in respect of some important qualitative and quantitative characters of mulberry, the method may be exploited to raise VAM-colonized mulberry saplings for new plantation.