Vita Ratri Cahyani, Muhammad Ridho Alfin, Nabilah Hanifah
Sebelas Maret University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil Science, Kentingan, Surakarta, Jawa Tengah, Indonesia 57126
Cahyani, V. R., Alfin, M. R., & Hanifah, N. (2019). Screening of arbuscular mycorrhiza isolated from rhizosphere of elephant grass from seven soil types for biofertilizer in zeolite pot culture. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(4), 724–731
Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) has been proven having important roles to support plant growth in a variety of environmental and land constraints. The present study aimed at elucidating the potential of AM propagules obtained from rhizosphere of el- ephant grass from 7 (seven) soil types in around area of Solo city and Semarang city, the province of Jawa Tengah, Indonesia, to be screened as a biofertilizer. The first step, exploration and analysis of rhizospheric soil of elephant grass from drylands of Alfisol Jumantono, Histosol Ambarawa, Oxisol Tuntang, Andisol Tengaran, Inceptisol Delanggu, Vertisol Jatikuwung and Entisol Pracimantoro for the existence of AM which consisted of spore density and diversity. The second step, pot cultural experiment was conducted for comparing the infectivity and effectivity of AM spores from 7 (seven) soil types in the same media of zeolite and using maize as host. Based on the results of exploration in natural conditions, the rhizospheric soil of elephant grass from Alfisol Jumantono (AJ) and Entisol Pracimantoro (EP) were categorized having low spore density, and based on the pot cultural experiment using zeolite, these two inoculums of AJ and EP also showed low AM infectivity, but resulted in the highest AM effectivity on plant growth as indicated by the highest plant biomass. Based on the result of exploration in natural conditions, the rhizospheric soil from Andisol Tengaran (ATe) indicated the highest spore density (450 spores/100 g soil), however based on the pot culture experiment the inoculum ATe showed the lowest AM effectivity on plant dry weight. The inoculum sources from EP and AJ showed the highest value of mycorrhizal dependency (MD) and growth response (GR), whereas the inoculum of ATe showed the lowest MD and GR in zeolite pot culture. The continued examinations for the functional capability of AM in target conditions are needed for obtaining effective AM biofertilizer.