Growth and Ectomycorrhizal Development of Loblolly Pine Seedlings in Fumigated Soil Infested with the Fungal Symbiont Pisolithus tinctorius

Author： Marx Donald H. Bryan William C.

Publisher： Society of American Foresters

ISSN： 0015-749X

Source： Forest Science, Vol.21, Iss.3, 1975-09, pp. : 245-254

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Abstract

Vegetative mycelium in a vermiculite-peat moss-nutrient medium and basidiospores of Pisolithus tinctorius were used to infest fumigated soil and synthesize ectomycorrhizae on over 4000 Pinus taeda seedlings in 36 nursery microplots. Soil mulches provided four soil temperature regimes with diurnal fluctuations between 19°C and 47°C. In all regimes, mycelial inoculum of P. tinctorius completely colonized roots of loblolly pine seedlings during an 8 mo growth period, formed ectomycorrhizae on approximately 92 percent of short roots, and stimulated twice as much dry matter production as in seedlings ectomycorrhizal with naturally occurring fungi, including Thelephora terrestris. When basidiospores of P. tinctorius were added to soil around 2-mo-old seedlings already ectomycorrhizal with naturally occurring fungi, approximately half the ectomycorrhizae after 8 mo were formed by P. tinctorius. Basidiocarps of P. tinctorius were produced around certain microplots. The following year, P. tinctorius from overwintered inoculum in the microplots formed ectomycorrhizae on loblolly pine seedlings when soil was mixed at ratios as great as 1:10 with recently fumigated soil. Vegetative mycelial and basidiospore inocula of P. tinctorius can be used to artificially infest fumigated soil to tailor pine seedlings with this highly beneficial ectomycorrhizal association. Forest Sci. 21:245-254.