Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
vations were made on buddlings also. There was a significantly higher
growth with microbial consortium treated buddlings (11.76 g root weight,
26.41 g shoot weight, and 28.51 mm stem diameter on per plant basis)
compared to untreated control (4.10 g root weight, 10.72 g shoot weight,
and 20.20 mm stem diameter). These observations confirmed the effec-
tiveness of developed microbial consortium in growth promoting abilities.
TABLE 11.5
Evaluation of Microbial Consortium in Nursery Plants (Pooled Data of Two
Seasons)
Treatments
Root weight
(g)
Shoot weight
(g)
Stem diameter
(mm)
Seedlings (Period : 45 days)
Control
2.99
9.08
8.61
Treated
9.59
24.86
11.9
t
P
= 0.05
3.65
5.63
1.43
Buddlings (Period : 124 days)
Control
4.10
10.72
20.20
Treated
11.76
26.41
28.51
t
P
= 0.05
2.03
5.635
2.02
Source:
Wu
and Srivastava (2012).
The inoculation with microbial consortium brought a significant
change in available supply of different nutrients in soil and microbial bio-
mass nutrients
(
Table 11.6
)
. A significantly higher soil fertility status with
microbial consortium treated plants (123.4 N - 16.2 P - 13.7 Fe - 10.2
Mn - 0.88 Zn mg kg
-1
) was observed compared to untreated control (116.2
N - 13.2 P - 8.8 Fe - 6.7 Mn - 0.62 Zn mg kg
-1
). Similarly, microbial
biomass nutrients were higher in the rhizosphere treated with microbial
consortium (147.7 mg kg
-1
C
mic
, 34.1 mg kg
-1
N
mic
and 17.8 mg kg
-1
P
mic
)
than untreated control (119.8 mg kg
-1
, C
mic
, 21.8 mg kg
-1
N
mic
and 13.5
mg kg
-1
P
mic
). The above observations strongly supported the effectiveness
of microbial consortium in improving chemical and biological indices of
citrus rhizosphere.
