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