Soil fungal concentration and crop yield
By the end of the trial, the percentage of mycorrhizal root colonisation was significantly (P < 0.01) higher under the microbial inoculation treatment (33.6%) than it was under the uninoculated control treatment (8.0%). The total number of Trichodermacolonies recovered from the rhizosphere under the microbial-based treatment was significantly (P < 0.01) higher than that recorded for the untreated control (2.2 × 105vs. 1.2 × 103 CFU g-1, respectively).
Relative to the uninoculated control, inoculation with AMF andTrichoderma koningii significantly increased fruit yield especially during the first part of the reproductive cycle, namely, early yield 139 DAT (P<0.05) and 174 DAT (P<0.01) (Table 1). The comparatively higher production rates measured at 139 DAT and 272 DAT for pepper plants inoculated with microbial-based biostimulant was due to an increase in mean fruit weight. In contrast, the relatively higher fruit yield determined for 174 DAT was attributed to increases in both fruit number per plant and mean fruit mass (Tables 1–3). The microbial-based biostimulant significantly improved cumulative fruit yield by 23.7% relative to uninoculated pepper plants (Table 1).