Effectiveness of Mycorrhizal Soils from Miombo Woodland on the Growth and Survival of Pinus Seedlings in a Nursery

Pine seedling production is challenged by in availability of pine plantations, where mycorrhizae soils would be collected. Pine plantations are found in distant sites from farmers due to different silvicultural zones. This might hinder the success of afforestation and reforestation programmes. This study was carried out to find out the effectiveness of using mycorrhizae soils from miombo woodlands in enhancing survival and growth of pine seedlings. Seedlings were subjected to four different mycorrhizae to ordinary soil ratios treatments which were completely randomized in four replicates, namely: T1 (100% mycorrhizae soil from old pine plantations); T2 (100% mycorrhizae soil from miombo woodlands); T3 (1:10-mycorrhizae soil from miombo woodland to ordinary soils); and T4 (1:10-mycorrhizae soil from old pine plantations to ordinary soils) as a control. The results indicate that there were significant (P<0.05) differences among treatments on mean height, root collar diameter and survival of Pinus seedlings after 12 weeks of pricking out. Pinus seedlings subjected to T1 and T2 produced higher height, root collar diameter growth and higher survival rate than those subjected to T3 and T4. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences between T1 and T2 on Pinus seedlings height, root collar diameter growth as well as survival rate. However, seedlings from T2 had higher height (14.09±0.19cm) and root collar diameter (0.34±0.01cm) growth than seedlings from T1 (13.86±0.14, 0.33±0.02cm) respectively. On the other hand, seedlings from T1 had higher survival rate (100%) than those from T2 (90±5.06%). Therefore, the study recommends that farmers to adopt the use of 100% miombo woodland soil in raising Pinus seedlings as an alternative, where there is scarcity of old pine plantation soils.