Response of snapdragon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Antirrhinum majus</Emphasis> L.) to blended water irrigation and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation: uptake of minerals and leaf water relations

A greenhouse study was performed in order to investigate the effects of three arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species on vegetative growth, water relations, and mineral composition parameters of snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus cv. Bells white) under irrigation from different water sources. Five irrigation treatments included using purely desalinized (fresh) water (DW), as a control, three different blends of DW with saline ground water from a well with increasing salinity, and one with 100% of saline well water. Inoculation with AMF enhanced growth rates and a relative water content of snapdragon plants grown under well-water irrigation. AMF also improved the leaf water potential and increased water-use efficiency of the plants. Shoot and root dry masses were higher in the AMF-treated plants than those in AMF-free plants. In both shoots and roots, concentrations of total P, Ca²⁺, N, Mg²⁺, and K⁺ were higher in the AMF-treated plants compared with AMF-free plants under salt-stress conditions. Shoot Cl^- and Na⁺ concentrations were lower in the AMF-treated plants than those in the AMF-free plants grown under well-water irrigation. Snapdragon plants exhibited a high degree of dependency on AMF; it improved plant growth rates and leaf water relations, particularly, with increasing salinity of irrigation water.