Research Article

The Effect of Mycorrhiza Inoculation on Pepper Plant Growth and Mycorrhizal Dependency

Efe SOYLU, Mehmet IŞIK^* and İbrahim ORTAŞ

Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Cukurova Adana, Turkey

*Corresponding author e-mail: isikm@cu.edu.tr

(Received: 15/02/2023; Revised: 10/05/2023; Accepted: 25/06/2023)

ABSTRACT

Pepper cultivation is one of the vegetables that are widely produced in the world. The use of mycorrhiza in sustainable agriculture can be an environmentally friendly and economical agriculture strategy. The purpose of the study; is to investigate the effect of mycorrhiza inoculation on plant growth development, yield and mycorrhizal dependency. The hypothesis to be tested is; inoculation of mycorrhiza increases pepper plant growth parameters. The experiment was established as a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions in February 2018 and harvested in April 2018. BT 16-90 F1 pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) species seeds were used with mycorrhiza Claroideoglomus Etunicatum and without mycorrhiza inoculation with three replications. Before harvesting, plant height and leaf diameter were measured. At harvest, the dry and fresh weights of the root and shoot were measured. In addition, some of the root morphological properties (like root diameter, root length, root surface area and root volume) were determined by using WinRhizo program. In addition, mycorrhizal root infections were determined. Mycorrhizal dependency was calculated by using dry matter data.  Research findings showed that mycorrhizal inoculation increased pepper plant root, shoot fresh and dry weight, plant height, and leaf diameter. In addition, the root length of the plants with mycorrhiza inoculation (as 3921 cm pot^-1) was higher than without mycorrhiza (with 1945 cm pot^-1) treatments. The pepper plant has a high mycorrhizal dependency (71.9%) with Cl. Etunicatum inoculation. The results shown that Cl. Etunicatum inoculation increased pepper plant growth and development. Also, the pepper plant is a highly mycorrhiza-dependent plant.

Keywords: Pepper, Mycorrhizal Dependency, Shoot and Root Growth