Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization and spore population in chickpea under Punjab condition

Studies were conducted on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization and spore population in chickpea under Punjab conditions. It was found that the maximum colonization of 76.5 per cent was observed from the root samples of Patiala district followed by 74.4, 71.1, 67.5, 65.6, 56.2, 55.0, 53.2, 45.5, 42.4, 33.7 per cent from the samples of Faridkot, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Moga, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Barnala and Bathinda, respectively. The minimum colonization 32.2 per cent was observed from the sample of Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar). The percentage of colonization and spore population of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was significantly different from each other with respect to the samples collected from different districts. The spores of Glomus species were found predominant in all the samples. The highest spore population of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was recorded as 782.5 per 100 g of rhizosphere fresh soil from Patiala samples, but it was minimum 308.3 spores per 100 g of the soil from the sample of SAS Nagar. The number of spores of Glomus spp. varied from 112.5 to 379.2 from the samples of SAS Nagar and Patiala, respectively.