Limited Impact of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Nitrogen and Water Inputs in Greenhouse Bell Pepper Cultivation

Limited Impact of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Nitrogen and Water Inputs in Greenhouse Bell Pepper Cultivation | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Limited Impact of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Nitrogen and Water Inputs in Greenhouse Bell Pepper Cultivation Brooke Matusko, Ricardo Hernández, Kevin Garcia, Rekha Pandey, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9053473/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Bell pepper ( Capsicum annuum ) is a high-value vegetable crop with a projected global market size of $6-7 billion by 2033. Despite their broad adaptability, bell pepper acreage and yield in the United States have declined since 2000, both in open field and greenhouse conditions, largely due to increased production challenges such as international market competition, production and labor costs, and climate challenges. Some of these effects include more frequent abiotic stress events such as drought and heat, as well as heightened pest and disease pressure. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been proposed as a biological strategy to improve crop resilience through enhanced water and nutrient acquisition; however, their effectiveness in intensive vegetable production systems remains unclear. Here, we report two studies. The first one evaluated the effects of commercial AMF inoculation on water use, stress tolerance, and plant performance in greenhouse-grown bell peppers. Pot-grown plants were subjected to well-watered and water-deficit irrigation regimes, with and without AMF inoculation. Water-deficit irrigation reduced fruit yield by approximately 50% compared to well-watered conditions, and AMF inoculation did not mitigate the effects of water deficit. A subsequent experiment assessed the influence of inoculation timing and method under two nitrogen fertilizer rates. No significant effects of inoculation treatment were also observed on plant growth or yield. These results indicate that irrigation and nutrient limitations exert a strong influence on greenhouse bell pepper productivity and suggest a limited benefit of AMF bioinoculants under controlled conditions. rhizosphere root colonization bioinoculants drought stress controlled-environment plant nutrition vegetable production physiological stress responses Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9053473","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":609567526,"identity":"1dfacb59-afe4-4a3c-91a6-d4b5ed270c39","order_by":0,"name":"Brooke Matusko","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"North Carolina State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Brooke","middleName":"","lastName":"Matusko","suffix":""},{"id":609567527,"identity":"3adb5819-914c-45ac-b058-3a25cbeca29d","order_by":1,"name":"Ricardo Hernández","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"North Carolina State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ricardo","middleName":"","lastName":"Hernández","suffix":""},{"id":609567528,"identity":"81cc682f-8c1e-4e42-80c3-cbdebc3eff5e","order_by":2,"name":"Kevin Garcia","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"North Carolina State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kevin","middleName":"","lastName":"Garcia","suffix":""},{"id":609567529,"identity":"78feed5a-ce13-4191-9577-366dad8d5423","order_by":3,"name":"Rekha Pandey","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"North Carolina State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rekha","middleName":"","lastName":"Pandey","suffix":""},{"id":609567530,"identity":"8a3127f1-3dc0-4b4d-8514-c73fbc4f345d","order_by":4,"name":"Amanda A. 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Despite their broad adaptability, bell pepper acreage and yield in the United States have declined since 2000, both in open field and greenhouse conditions, largely due to increased production challenges such as international market competition, production and labor costs, and climate challenges. Some of these effects include more frequent abiotic stress events such as drought and heat, as well as heightened pest and disease pressure. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been proposed as a biological strategy to improve crop resilience through enhanced water and nutrient acquisition; however, their effectiveness in intensive vegetable production systems remains unclear. Here, we report two studies. The first one evaluated the effects of commercial AMF inoculation on water use, stress tolerance, and plant performance in greenhouse-grown bell peppers. Pot-grown plants were subjected to well-watered and water-deficit irrigation regimes, with and without AMF inoculation. Water-deficit irrigation reduced fruit yield by approximately 50% compared to well-watered conditions, and AMF inoculation did not mitigate the effects of water deficit. A subsequent experiment assessed the influence of inoculation timing and method under two nitrogen fertilizer rates. No significant effects of inoculation treatment were also observed on plant growth or yield. \u0026nbsp;These results indicate that irrigation and nutrient limitations exert a strong influence on greenhouse bell pepper productivity and suggest a limited benefit of AMF bioinoculants under controlled conditions.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Limited Impact of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Nitrogen and Water Inputs in Greenhouse Bell Pepper Cultivation","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-24 16:58:35","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9053473/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"57f2401f-1f6c-4032-8086-f7ca95519dbd","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 24th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"decision","content":"Rejected","date":"2026-05-10T22:58:10+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-10T23:09:21+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-24 16:58:35","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9053473","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9053473","identity":"rs-9053473","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}