Development and resistance to Verticillium dahliae of olive plantlets inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi during the nursery period

The current study, performed in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) in 2003-04, reports the growth, nutrition, tolerance to transplanting stress, and resistance to Verticillium dahliae of olive plantlets (Olea europaea L.) inoculated with different arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (Glomus mosseae, G. intraradices and G. claroideum). Inoculated plants tolerated the stress of transplanting better than non-inoculated plants. Compared with controls, plantlets inoculated with any of these three Glomus species grew taller, had more and longer shoots, and showed higher plant N, P and K concentrations. However, colonization seemed to have no influence on resistance to V. dahliae.