Vol. 8, Issue 8, Part P (2024)

An experiment entitled "Effect of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza and Organic Amendments on growth and flowering of Chrysanthemum" was conducted at the Plant Pathology Section, College of Agriculture, Nagpur. A pot culture experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with eleven treatments viz., compost, vermicompost, FYM, vermiculate, poultry manure, groundnut cake, sunflower cake, safflower cake, sesamum cake, cotton cake and an uninoculated control in three replications during 2023-24. Plants were inoculated with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (Glomus mosseae) and organic amendments and grown for 120 days under net house condition. It was clearly observed that application of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza combined with cotton cake was found highly effective on growth and flowering of Chrysanthemum resulting higher plant height (11.43 cm/plant at 30 DAP), maximum number of leaves (8.97 at 30 DAP, 12.9 at 60 DAP, 23.02 at 90 DAP and 73.15 at 120 DAP), maximum number of buds (20.67 /plant), maximum number of flowers (18.33 /flower/plant), maximum root colonization (86.67%) and spore count (427.33 spores), higher pH (6.9) and EC (0.258 dSm-1) and higher percentage of available macro and micro nutrient concentration over uninoculated control. While application of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza combined with sunflower cake resulted in higher plant height (19.91 cm/plant at 60 DAP, 22.71 cm/plant at 90 DAP and 32.68 cm/plant at 120 DAP), maximum number of shoots (11.33 /plant at 120 DAP) and higher fresh weight of flowers (2.23 g). Similarly application of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza combined with vermicompost resulted in minimum days to emergence of flower (33.33 days), maximum diameter of flowers (5.1 cm/flower) and higher root length (27.31 cm/plant).