Improvement of Morpho-Physiological Traits and Antioxidant Capacity of Zinnia (Zinnia Elegance ‘Dreamland Red’) by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (Glomus mosseae) Inoculation

The inoculation of substrates with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is one of the most important effective strategies applied and one of the aims of sustainable agriculture. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of AMF inoculation (0, 2.5, and 5 W/W) on morpho-physiological traits such as flower and root dry weight, water-use efficiency and antioxidant capacity, based on the completely randomized design with three replications. The results showed that AMF has a significant and positive effect on the studied traits compared to the control. Moreover, the highest flower and root dry weight were achieved in 5% AMF. Water use efficiency, antioxidant capacity and total phenol content were 1.5, 1.1 and 1.3 times higher in 5% treatment compared to the control (without AMF), respectively. The results showed the significant and positive symbiosis between Glomus mosseae and zinnia bedding plants, which led to improvement of flowers quality.