Influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal species on total dry matter accumulation, yield and its attributes of groundnut under water stress

Two field experiments were conducted at Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla to assess the effect of different arbuscular mycorrhizal species on growth, yield and its attributes of groundnut under water stress during rabi 2019-20 and 2020-21. The experimental results indicated that water stress significantly reduced the total dry matter accumulation, mean number of pods per plant, peg to pod ratio, pod yield, and harvest index in both the years. Among the mycorrhizal treatments, soil application of Glomus mosseae and Gigaspora sps. @ 12.5 Kg ha^-1 exhibited superior performance in enhancing the total dry matter accumulation and yield of groundnut. Especially under drought stress, soil application of Glomus mosseae and Gigaspora sps. @ 12.5 Kg ha^-1 increased the total dry matter accumulation 96.2 and 75.7 per cent during 2019-20 and 68.7 and 57.6 per cent during 2020-21 over control under drought stress. Higher number of pods per plant and pod yield under water stress were recorded by the treatments that received Glomus mosseae (14.36 and 1011.75 Kg ha^-1 during 2019-20 and and 1087.62 Kg ha^-1 during 2020-21, respectively) followed by Gigaspora sps. (13.82 and 974.04 Kg ha^-1 during 2019-20 and 12.00 and 997.05 Kg ha^-1 during 2020-21, respectively). Significantly poor performance with respect to total dry matter accumulation, yield and its attributes of groundnut was exhibited by control plants without mycorrhizal application and the plants that received Acaulospora sps. under both irrigated as well as water stress conditions.