Materials and Methods
The pot experiment was conducted in the greenhouse C4b in Dahlem (Albrecht Daniel Thaer – Institute für Agrar und Gartenbauwissenschaften) under specific experimental conditions, 20/25 °C (daily mean temperature) with 14:10h light:dark photoperiod, 60-65 Lux (light intensity) and 38-45% humidity. The soil was collected from paths from Thyrow region (Brandenburg, Germany, 52°15'0" N, 13°14'0" E) and sieved through a sieve (1 cm mesh size). The pots were washed, sterilized, dried and filled with 3.5 Kg soil prepared by mixing Thyrow soil with 2% from Dahlem soil (Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany, 52°27'29"N, 13°17'15"E) as a source of inoculum. The Dahlem soil was sieved before mixing through a sieve with 3 mm mesh size. Field capacity was measured by estimating water content and field capacity of Thyrow soil (natural wet soil) in 9 replicates. First, for field capacity, each sample of 100 gm soil was placed in a funnel plugged with a small piece of cotton or
Then, the funnel was fixed to a cylinder and 100 ml water was added to soil in the funnel slowly. Watch glass dish was used to cover the upper surface of the funnel to avoid losing any water by evaporation. The start time of each sample was recorded to calculate the amount of collecting water in the cylinder after one hour. The retained water in the soil was calculated simply (100 – the collected water in the cylinder) with considering the amount of water in the cotton or ply tissue. Water content was estimated in additional samples (100 gm) by weighting the soil samples (W1) and afterward drying them at 105 °C (W2). The final field capacity was the sum of field capacity of original soil (retained water in the soil) and water content (W1 – W2). According to this methodology, the field capacity for each pot (3.5 kg)