Is P fertilizer treatment adequate to overcome the loss of the arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungus from soil?
Although there is no treatment without fertilizer applied, plants with the lowest rate of 25 lb P/acre had severe P deficiency, which resulted in 32 bu-acre yield decrease in the flooded field, compared with the nonflooded field. Broadcasting P fertilizer did not have a significant impact on P uptake by plants. When 60 to 80 lb P/acre as starter fertilizer was applied to plots, plants did not show any P deficiency but flooded fields had a 7 to 16 bu/acre decrease in grain yield. An alternative for P fertilization, when soil P is adequate, could be to grow a fall cover host crop to rebuild the VAM fungal population. Source: Taken from Research article “Post Flood Syndrome and Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi” J. Prod. Agric., Vol 11, no. 2, 1998, p 155-156. J.R.
