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Al-Karaki, GNO; Othman, Y; Al-Ajmi, A. 2007. Effects of mycorrhizal fungi inoculation on landscape turf establishment under Arabian Gulf region conditions. ARAB GULF JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 25(3):147-152. Address: Al-Karaki, GNO, Arabian Gulf Univ, Manama, Bahrain
The development of technologies to hasten the establishment of grass lawn putting greens would be of a great advantage to landscape turf developers and renovators under dry regions conditions like Arabian Gulf region. A field experiment was conducted at Sultan Qaboos Center for Developed and Soilless Agriculture, Arabian Gulf University (Bahrain) to determine the effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi inoculation (German BioMyc(TM) Vital inoculum) on water use efficiency and establishment of a lawn mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass grown on a sandy soil with low P fertilizer level (50% of commonly recommended rate). Root colonization with AM fungi occurred extensively in AM inoculated plants seven weeks after seeding (similar to 88%). Inoculated plots with AM fungi had improved turf coverage, shoot and root growth, clipping yield, and water use efficiency in comparison with uninoculated plots. The results revealed that turfgrass inoculated with AM fungi established more quickly and had more biomass than uninoculated turf which indicate the potential of mycorrhiza in improving utilization of fertilizer and irrigation water to hasten and improve the establishment of grass lawn under Arabian Gulf region conditions.
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