Inoculation with BP Improves Nitrogen Absorption from Fertilizer and Growth of during the Early Nursery Stage.

Blueberry roots are inefficient in taking up water and nutrients, a fact partially related to their scarcity of root hairs, but they improve nutrient uptake by associating with ericoid mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi. However, the benefits of this association are both cultivar- and fungus-dependent. Our objective was to assess the effect of inoculation with three native fungal strains ( A, BP, and BC) on plantlet growth, plantlet survival, and nitrogen (N) absorption of the southern highbush blueberry (SHB) cultivars Biloxi and Misty. The fungal strains were inoculated into the peat-based substrate for growing blueberry cultivars, and plantlets produced by micropropagation were transplanted and grown for four months. The three inoculated strains positively affected the survival percentage in at least one of the cultivars tested, whereas BP positively affected plant biomass, N derived from fertilizer absorption, N content, and plant N recovery (%) in both Biloxi and Misty. Our results show that the BP strain may prove useful as a bio-inoculant to improve blueberry production during the nursery stage.