ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Fruit-Growing Systems as a Key Factor of Successful Production: Volume IIView all 8 articles
Synergistic Effects of Mycorrhizal Fungi and Leaf Extracts on Plum Fruit Quality and Yield
Provisionally accepted
- 1Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India
- 2The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
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Despite the established benefits of mycorrhizal fungi and botanical biostimulants, their synergistic effects on fruit crop quality and productivity remain insufficiently characterized. This study evaluated the combined application of three mycorrhizal species (Rhizophagus irregularis, Serendipita indica, and Rhizophagus fasciculatus) with a tri-species custard apple–citrus–guava leaf extract (CCG @1%) on five-year-old 'Satluj Purple' plum trees under subtropical field conditions. A factorial randomized block design with eight treatment combinations and three replications per treatment was used to assess fruit morphological traits, yield components, phosphorus content, and key biochemical attributes, including antioxidant activity, total phenolics, and flavonoids. Among the treatments, Rhizophagus fasciculatus combined with CCG @1% (RfLE₁) consistently outperformed the control and single-factor treatments. RfLE₁ increased fruit yield from 34.99 to 64.86 kg tree⁻¹, enhanced fruit phosphorus content from 0.13% to 0.41%, and elevated antioxidant activity from 80.73% to 89.65%. It also raised total soluble solids from 8.45 to 15.60 °B, increased flavonoid content from 124.33 to 191.07 mg QE 100 g⁻¹, slightly improved fruit weight (31.82 to 34.78 g), and reduced titratable acidity from 1.05% to 0.55%. Synergy analysis indicated that RfLE₁ produced effects on yield, phosphorus nutrition, and multiple quality traits that exceeded the expected additive contributions of the individual mycorrhiza and leaf extract treatments. These findings suggest that integrating R. fasciculatus with a standardized CCG leaf extract can substantially enhance productivity and nutraceutical quality in 'Satluj Purple' plum, while highlighting the need for multi-season and economic evaluations before broad-scale commercial adoption.
Keywords: fruit quality, Leaf extracts, mycorrhiza, nutrient uptake, Prunus salicina, sustainable agriculture
Received: 01 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Thoudam, Kotiyal, Thakur and Ahmadi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dr. Amit Kotiyal
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