Effect of Mycorrhizae Inoculation on the Growth of Young Date Palm Plants Under Nursery Conditions

Abstract

Two years’ experiments were carried out at Al Hamrania Research Station (UAE) during (2015-2016) to explore the role of Mycorrhizal inoculation on the growth of date palm plants from micro-propagation growth under nursery conditions. Uniform plants of four date palm cultivars (Barhi, Khalas, Sultana and Madjool) were planted into 10-L pots. The Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used in this study experiments which involved application of: (T1) recommended 100% chemical fertilizer only, (T2) 100% of recommended organic fertilizer only, (T3) Mycorrhizae without any fertilization, (T4) Mycorrhizae + 100% recommended chemical fertilizer, (T5) Mycorrhizae + recommended 50% organic fertilizer, (T6) Mycorrhizae + 50% chemical fertilizer and (T7) Mycorrhizae +25% chemical fertilizers +25% organic fertilizers. The results indicated that the use of Mycorrhizae with 100% of recommended organic fertilizers rate were increased significantly by 23% and 25% of the seedling leave growth rate and leave numbers per seedlings, respectively, when compared with the control treatment (without Mycorrhizae inoculation). This greenhouse study also indicated that half the amount of organic fertilizers application had similar effects when compared with 100% organic fertilizer when mixed with mycorrhiza for number of product leaves for all date palm cultivars.