BIOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF FIELD GROWN SESAME INFLUENCED BY ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL INOCULATION, ROCK PHOSPHATE FERTILIZATION AND IRRIGATION

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and rock phosphate (RP) fertilization on biometric parameters and mycorrhizal colonization of field grown sesame under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Inoculation of AMF Funneliformis dimorphicus improved the biometric parameters of the crop such as leaf area (LA), leaf area index (LAI), specific leaf weight (SLW), net assimilation rate (NAR), oil index (OI) as well as mycorrhizal colonization (%F) in roots. Mycorrhizal inoculation however, did not give any positive response on harvest index (HI). LA, LAI and OI and %F showed a general increment in treatments of no added P (P0), while the other parameters such as SLW and NAR were improved by the application of RP at half the recommended dose (P50). HI did not respond to RP fertilization. Most of the parameters (LA, LAI, NAR, %F) showed higher values under rainfed condition than irrigated condition whereas, SLW, HI and OI improved significantly under irrigated condition. Results indicated that the inoculation of AMF to field grown sesame can compensate for 50% of the recommended P fertilizer under a need based irrigation schedule, without affecting the biometric parameters.