| Abstract: | Abstract An experiment was conducted in forest college campus, Mettupalayam, India with an objective of studying the influence of microbial inoculants on seedling growth of teak. The fruits were collected from the seed production area in top slip (Tamil Nadu) from 63-year mother trees. The microbial inoculants viz., Azospirillum, Azotobacter, phosphobacteria, AMF, Azospirillum + AMF, Azotobacter+ AMF, phosphobacteria + AMF and an uninoculated control formed the treatments. The inoculants were mixed sand and red soil at 1:1:3 ratio, respectively, for preparing nursery mixture for filling the poly pots. The seeds were sown into the poly pots @ two seeds per pot. The experiment was set up in a randomized Block Design with three replications. Biometric observations on various growth attributes were recorded six months after treatment and also their survival in the main field-tested for one year. Azotobacter gave best performance with respect to shoot length, shoot weight and leaf area and combined inoculation of phosphobacteria and AMF gave higher root length and biomass, dry matter production and fine root weight. The survival was better in seedlings that were inoculated with phosphobacteria and AMF. However, below ground biomass and out planting survival during early phase are critical in any tree species. Hence it is concluded that inoculation of phosphobacteria and AMF conjointly be done for better survival and growth of teak seedlings. |
