A greenhouse experiment was carried out to evaluate the influence of VAM fungi of acid soil on phosphorus uptake from a low solubility source. Ten plants of arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum Savi cv. Yuchi) were used, till flowering initiation, in each pot filled with surface soil from a Dark Red Podzolic (Palehumult), in a 2x4+1 factorial arrangement, at pH 4.2 and 5.1, with zero, 35ppm of concentrated superphosphate, 70ppm of P2O5 from a low solubility source - LLS - (fraction insoluble in citric acid at 2% of partially acidulated Araxá phosphate), and 70ppm of P2O5 from the LLS applied to a precedent crop, residual effect. These treatments were inoculated with VAM fungi spores. A fumigated, pH 4.2 and without phosphorus addition treatment was used as control. The experimental arrangement was a complete randomized plot design with five replications, and 9 treatments. The pH 4.2 treatment showed manganese toxicity symptons, not allowing the establishment of the trifolium seedlings. There were no differences in dry matter yield, phosphorus uptake and mycorrhizal colonization rate when the low solubility source was used, as compared to its residual effect or to the concetrated superphosphate, but those parameters were higher than the treatment without phosphorus. For pH 5.1, the mycorrhizal colonization rate reached values higher than 80%, but without phosphorus effects. Dry matter yield and phosphorus uptake for the zero phosphorus phosphorus source. The 70ppm treatment of this source doubled the accumulated phosphorus, but was lower than that of the 35ppm concentrated superphosphate, showing that the low solubility source has a fraction of soluble phosphorus and that the indigenous VAM fungi can contribute to the phosphorus nutrition of trifolium.
Trifolium vesiculosum; low solubility phosphate; indigenous VAM fungi
