Abstract
The experiment was conducted in a fumigated soil which had been cropped with cereals in the previous year. The five treatments were: introduced arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi-inoculum dispersed; introduced AM fungi-inoculum placed; indigenous AM fungi-inoculum dispersed; indigenous AM fungi-inoculum placed; and uninoculated. Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Canadian Wonder was sown in furrows of standard spacing. Plants were harvested on three occasions. Inoculation with both introduced and indigenous AM fungi improved the growth and yield of beans. These fungi increased leaf area and differences were maintained until the final harvest. The shoot dry weight was also consistently higher in inoculated than in the uninoculated plants. Mycorrhizal infection was greatest when inoculum was placed below seeds at planting than dispersed, although the differences at individual harvests were not significant.
