Abstract:
Recent trends in soil microbiology suggest that fungal inoculants such as Trichoderma harzianum or arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have the potential to improve yield and fruit quality of crops. The purpose of
this study was to investigate the effect of inoculating tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) with T. harzianum
and the AMF (Glomus mosseae) on yield and nutrient content of tomato fruit. A factorial experiment (3
×
3)
with three application timings for each of T. harzianum and AMF, namely uninoculated control, inoculated
before sowing and two weeks after sowing, giving nine treatment combinations was conducted in
a greenhouse. Both T. harzianum and AMF increased total yield and marketable yield of tomato (P > 0.05).
Inoculating tomato with AMF before sowing significantly increased the percentage of extra-large fruit,
while inoculation with T. harzianum two weeks after sowing lowered the Ca and Mg contents of tomato
fruit. T. harzianum and AMF inoculation increased the lycopene content, but did not affect the antioxidant
activity, total flavonoids or vitamin C of the tomato fruit. Results of this study suggested that T. harzianum
and AMF have the potential to influence yield and nutrient content of tomato in a greenhouse.
