Indigenous Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) Fungi in Cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) Plantation of North East-Bali Island - Indonesia

Abstract

A study on indigenous VA-mycorrhizal fungi  associate with “cashew nut” plants (anacardium occidentale L.) was carried out at arid areas of North-East of Bali Indonesia from April 2011 up to February, 2012 representing dry and rainy seasons consecutively.

Soil samples were randomly collected from rhizosphere of either seedling or adult cashew-nut plants with 2 months interval. Spores of myccorhizal fungi were extracted from the soil by wet-sieving and decanting method and morfologically identified.

This study found 5 genera consisiting of 13 species i.e. Acaulospora (4 species), Gigaspora (2 species), Scutellospora (1 species), Entrophospora (1 species) and Glomus (5 species). The most frequent genera found was Glomus and the least was Entrophospora. The number of spore varied temporally and showed opposite trend to the monthly total of rain fall.  The average of spore number was 52 to 91 per 250 g soil sample.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhizae, A. occidentale L. Arid area, Bali Island