Effect of Trichoderma (65 fungus) on morphological and biochemical traits of tuberose under drought stress

In order to investigate the effect of different levels of Trichoderma fungus on some morpho-physiological, flowering and biochemical traits of tuberose flower under drought stress conditions, an experiment was conducted in a factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications in Research Greenhouses of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2016. Drought stress treatments included irrigation at 100, 50 and 25% of field capacity and fungal treatments included three levels of 20, 10 and 0% of fungus. The results showed that drought stress increased the amount of antioxidant, total chlorophyll and proline. In addition to drough stress, had a negative significant effect on fresh and dry weights of root and biomass, relative water content of leaves, floret diameter and number of open floret, but Trichoderma largely moderated these negative effects. The highest amounts of total chlorophyll (1.04 mg/g leaf fresh weight) and relative humidity of leaf water (85.2%) were obtained at 10% level of fungus, which did not show a significant difference from those at 20% level of fungus. In the rest of the traits, the highest levels were found at 20% level of fungus. Since the Trichoderma fungus, besides reducing the effects of drought stress, increases vegetative growth and increases the number of open florets (which is considered as an important factor in the marketability) of tuberose flower, use of it can be suggested as a biological factor in increasing the quality of tuberose flower in similar conditions.