Abstract

Alleviation of Drought Stress of Young Peach (Prunus persica L.) Trees by using Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

Author(s): Rachid Razouk, Jamal Ibijbijen, Abdellah Kajji and Hanane El Hafa

It is well known that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have favorable effects on nutrients uptake and water relations of plants. On this basis, an experiment was carried out under field conditions to evaluate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhization, realized by a mixture of two mycorrhizal fungi strains, Glomus intraradices and Glomus mosseae, on drought tolerance of young peach trees. The experiment was performed on four mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal peach varieties, one year old, submitted to two water regimes, 50% and 100% ETc. Results showed that young peach trees, even mycorrhized, did not tolerate water stress applied. However, plants were dependent on mycorrhizae under water stress, partially compensating its effects. The compensatory effect of mycorrhizae was related to an increase of water potential and stomatal conductance without changing relative water content of plants. Mycorrhizae also induced a significant increase of phosphorus uptake under water stress. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that arbuscular mycorrhizae significantly improve water and nutrient use efficiency of young peach trees submitted to water stress of 50% ETc. The observed improvements due to mycorrhizae were considerable, suggesting possibility of adoption of this water restriction to optimize deficit irrigation of mycorrhizal plants of this rosacea under low water availability conditions.