Ectomycorrhizae and growth of Douglas-fir seedlings preinoculated with Rhizopogonvinicolor and outplanted on eastern Vancouver Island

Abstract

Ectomycorrhizal colonization of container-grown Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco (Douglas-fir) inoculated with Rhizopogonvinicolor A.H. Smith was determined after cold storage and after one growing season on a clearcut on eastern Vancouver Island. Inoculated Douglas-fir seedlings were taller than noninoculated controls when outplanted but, perhaps because of browse damage, no growth differences were found after one field season. Rhizopogonvinicolor colonized all of the inoculated but none of the control seedlings examined after cold storage. Volunteer Thelephoraterrestris Fr. colonized almost half of the control and 10% of the inoculated seedlings before outplanting. After one field season, inoculated and control seedlings were colonized by 15 ectomycorrhizal fungi each, only eight of which were found on both. Rhizopogonvinicolor persisted on the roots of inoculated plants, but was also present in the field soil since the control seedlings also bore these mycorrhizae after one growing season. The relative abundance of T. terrestris decreased from the nursery to the field. The other common ectomycorrhizae in the field included Myceliumradicisatrovirens Melin, Cenococcumgeophilum Fr., and types resembling Tuber and Endogone.