Effect of Co-Inoculation of am Fungus Scutellospora Sp. and Fluorescent Pseudomonas on Coleus forskohlii

Abstract

An investigation was carried out with the aim to study the interactive effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), Pseudomonas on growth and yield of Coleus forskohlii. The inoculation of AM fungus, Scutellospora sp. and PGPR organisms (Pseudomonas sp.) showed increase in plant enzyme activities along with enhancement in tuber yield and alkaloid content, than the individual treatments. The combined inoculation of the AM fungus with PGPR recorded maximum shoot and root length with 40.4 and 203.1 per cent increase over control and the total dry matter content increased by 104.5 percent over control. The enzyme activities (acid, alkaline and dehydrogenase) were found to have enhanced upto 200 per cent due to the combined inoculation of SCL1+PFC1 which was double than single inoculations. The AM colonization (45-90 per cent) and spore load (155–330 spores) were also higher due to these treatments while, about 6-7, 1-2 and 5-6 fold increase in N, P and K uptake was noticed respectively. The tuber yield (0.73 g plant-1) and forskohlin content (0.03-0.06 per cent) were also found to be doubled due to the inoculation of AM fungi with PGPR.