The use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in agriculture and farming has been proven to increase crop yields and overall soil nutrition and health. With AM fungi, a mutually symbiotic relationship with plants is established and surface areas of plant roots are rapidly increased and in turn helps plants to absorb more nutrients from the soil. Common cover crops to aid in AMF development are various species of legumes and grasses. In our study, we set out four plots to determine which cover crop mixtures most significantly increase mycorrhizal fungi and soil health. We cultivated various plots that have been invaded by Johnson Grass and also previously used to grow winter wheat at Weatherford College (WC) Farm. We compared colonization levels of mycorrhizal fungi in the roots extracted from the soil samples collected from the experimental plots. From each of the four plots three random soil cores were collected and stored in WC Lab for spore and root extraction. Mycorrhizal spores were extracted from soils by wet sieving, while, mixed plant roots extracted from the soils were cleared in 5% KOH and stained in CBE to prepare microscope slides. Slides were viewed under microscope to quantify mycorrhizal propagules by viewing 100 fields of the view.
Results/Conclusions
We found 45.17±8.61% hyphal colonization on the plot planted with native plant mix. Similarly, Willman love grass and bluestem mix plot colonized with 31.17±6.37%, Giant Bermuda grass plot colonized with 33.67±5.39%, Winter wheat legume mix plot was colonized with 38.67±4.55% and Control plot without cover crops with 43.83±6.08% of hyphal colonization. We did not find any significance difference (p≤0.05) in AM hyphal colonization across the treatment plots. However, spore density at the plots planted with native grass mix and control plots were significantly higher (9.54±2.78 and 8.94±2.93 spores per gram of dry soil respectively) compared to the plots plant with love grass+blue stem mix (5.82±0.77 spores) and the plot planted with winter wheat (4.34±1.64 spores). We did not find any difference in fungal propagules except the higher spore density in native and control plots. Further studies will explore crop yield at the plots with respect to soil nutrients and AM fungi.