improvement of morpho-physiological traits and antioxidant capacity of zinnia (zinnia elegance ‘dreamland red’) by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (glomus mosseae) inoculation

Objective: 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. methods: 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. results: 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.