Abstracts |
Seedlings of tea were grown in pots containing sterile soils at four different sites of Doon Valley, Dehradun, India, to study the effect of fluoride (F) and/or vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) fungi on shoot height, root length, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh leaf weight, and dry leaf weight of tea plants. The addition of F as NH4F, in a dose of 0.50 mg/g soil, to the soil appeared to have no or a negligible effect on shoot height, root length, leaf area, number of leaves, fresh leaf weight and dry leaf weight of tea plants compared to control plants. Treatment of the soil with VAM fungi resulted in a marked increase in the morphological features studied over the control and F-treated tea plants. No differences in individual growth behavior were observed between VAM fungi+F- and the VAM fungi-treated tea plants. We concluded that F, in the dose of 0.50 mg/g soil, had no or very little effect on growth behavior of tea plants, but that the application of VAM fungi could enhance plant growth and leaf area even in the presence of F. |