Effect of mineral solubilizing bacteria and fly ash application on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop
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Date
2022-08
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Abstract
Coal is a predominant source of global energy and contributes about 38% of the total energy production worldwide. Fly ash is one of the by-products generated in thermal power plants. Fly ash has been shown to have the potential to improve soil as well as crop health. Efforts are being made to study its compatibility with soil microflora by incorporating in soil in certain fixed proportions. Fly ash application along with mineral solubilizing bacteria can be explored to cut down the use of chemical fertilizers for achieving high crop productivity. Fly ash used in present investigation had grey color, sandy texture, alkaline pH, with trace amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese and iron. A total of 75 bacterial isolates were retrieved from fly ash contaminated soil by dilution and plating, out of which 21 bacterial isolates (MSB1-MSB21) exhibited zone of clearance on Pikovskaya’s, modified Aleksandrov and Zinc minimal medium. Maximum solubilization index for isolate MSB1 and MSB2 was 4.60 and 4.94 for phosphorous, 3.23 and 4.13 for potassium and 4.32 and 4.71 for zinc respectively. All twenty one MSB isolates were found to be IAA producers in the range of 0.12-9.82 μg/ml. Thirteen MSB isolates showed HCN production and five isolates were observed as siderophore producers. On the basis of biochemical characterization and partial 16S rDNA sequencing, the isolate MSB1 exhibited 98.28% similarity with Bacillus safensis strain FO-36b and isolate MSB2 was showing 99.68% similarity with Brevundimonas vesicularis strain Busing. The viable count of bacterial isolate MSB2 in nutrient broth amended with fly ash increased with increase in fly ash from 0.5 to 3.0% and decreased with further increase in fly ash concentration upto five percent. Maximum viable count of MSB2 was observed as 8.68 log cfu/ml at 3% fly ash concentration after 72h of incubation. Similarly, the bacterial isolate MSB2 survived in soil amended with 3% fly ash concentration with viable count 7.83 log cfu/g after 72h of incubation that decreased with increase in fly ash concentration and incubation time. Under pot house conditions, fly ash amendment in soil at 3% concentration and wheat seeds treated with culture of MSB2 resulted improved plant growth in terms of shoot weight, root weight and yield in terms of no. of seeds, no. of spikes, no. of tillers and seed weight in comparison with control. According to the findings of this study, fly ash (3%) combined with mineral solubilizing bacterium can be used to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer for achieving high crop yield