Increasing the productivity and product quality of vegetable crops using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: A review

Abstract The majority of vegetable crops are potential host plants of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). AMF can improve the nutrient and water supply, induce tolerance of environmental stress and resistance to root diseases and nematodes of their host plants. Therefore, inoculation of vegetable crops with AMF can be profitable and commercial inoculation products are available. While, the impact of AMF on diverse vegetable crops was described in the past, the deduction of their general significance for these crops in horticulture is missing so far. In this review, we examine the state-of-the-art of capabilities of AMF to increase the productivity of vegetable crops by growth promotion, amelioration of stress, biocontrol of pathogens and to improvement of the chemical quality. AMF can be effective to increase the drought and salt stress tolerance. They were supposed to be seem especially promising in biocontrol of root-knot nematodes and in increase of the chemical quality of vegetables for human nutrition. The efficiency of inoculation with AMF on their host plants was controlled by the genotype combinations (host plant × AMF), by soil properties and by the inoculation method. Vegetable crops with high mycorrhizal growth dependency are from diverse families: Amaryllidaceae (e.g., onion, leek), Apiaceae (e.g., carrot), Asteraceae (e.g., lettuce), Cucurbitaceae (cucumber), Fabaceae (e.g., bean and pea) and Solanaceae (e.g., tomato, bell pepper). The future challenge of use of AMF in the production of vegetables will be to optimize combinations of crop plant × AMF inoculum, inoculation methods and soil or substrate properties for mycorrhiza establishment and use. Promising perspectives for combined inoculations of AMF with other biofertilizers or biopesticides were identified.