Mycorrhizal Colonization, Growth and Yield of Several Promising Lines of Black Rice between Sterilized and Non-Sterilized Soil

Sterilization of plant growing media was reported to have different effects on different crops. This research was aimed to examine the effects of autoclave sterilization of soil (sterilized vs non-sterilized) on root colonization by indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), growth and yield of various genotypes of promising lines of black rice in pot culture. The pot culture experiment was conducted in a glasshouse by arranging the treatments in a factorial Completely Randomized Design with three replications. The results indicated that autoclave sterilization of soil for growing black rice significantly reduced AMF colonization, productive tiller number, average panicle length, and grain yield per clump but increased weight of 100 grains. However, there were significant interactions between sterilization and rice genotypes on plant height, AMF colonization levels, average panicle length, grain yield per clump, and weight of 100 seeds, which means different genotypes showed different responses to soil sterilization. Among seven genotypes of black rice tested, G12 showed the highest grain yield (50.93 g/pot) and G8 showed the lowest yield (37.29 g/pot) due to the highest reduction in grain yield on the sterilized soil (46.00 g/pot vs 28.58 g/pot).