Aeroponic production of Acacia mangium saplings inoculated with AM fungi for reforestation in the tropics

Aeroponics, a soilless plant culture method, was used to produce Acacia man gium saplings associated with arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi. A. mangium seedlings were first grown in multipots and inoculated with Endorize, a com mercial AM fungal inoculum. They were then, either transferred to aeroponic systems or to soil. Aeroponics was found to be a better system than soil, allowing the production of tree saplings twice as high as those grown in so il. Moreover, compared to plants grown in soil, aeroponically grown sapling s inoculated with AM fungal inoculum exhibited significantly different rate s of mycorrhization, resulting in an increase in phosphorus and chlorophyll in plant tissues. Our results suggest that the aeroponic system is an inno vative and appropriate technology which has the potential to produce in lar ge quantities, tree saplings associated with soil micro-organisms, such as AM fungi, for reforestation of degraded land in the humid tropics. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.