PJB-2018-895
ASSESSMENT OF BEST APPLICATION RATE OF PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZER WITH PHOSPHATE SOLUBILIZING BACTERIA FOR OPTIMUM MAIZE GROWTH AND YIELD
MUHAMMAD KASHIF NADEEM1
Abstract
Phosphorus (P) is an important macronutrient which is required by plants for their proper growth and development. Under high soil pH, the availability of phosphorus becomes restricted due to its precipitation. In acid soil P also becomes immobile due to fixation with Al and Fe. Inoculation with phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) can improve P bioavailability to plants. However, only PSB inoculation cannot substitute mineral P fertilizers. A lot of work has been published on combine application of PSB and inorganic P fertilizer (IPF) but little information is available regarding application rate of IPF when applied with PSB in maize. It is hypothesized that combine application of PSB and inorganic P fertilizer (IPF) would be better approach to decrease the application rate of IPF without significant loss is yield. For that a field experiment was conducted with four levels of P (0, 52, 105 and 150 kg P2O5 ha-1) with and without PSB seed inoculation. It was noted that the inoculation of PSB with IPF at 150 and 105 kg P2O5 ha-1 significantly number of grains cob-1 (14.7% and 10.3%), grains yield (41.9% and 31.9%) and straw yield (57.0% and 50.5%) of maize. No significant difference in growth and yield attributes where 105 and 150 kg P2O5 ha-1 were applied with PSB validated better combination of 105 kg P2O5 ha-1 + PSB for maize. It is concluded from results that the application of IPF at the rate of 105 kg P2O5 ha-1 with PSB comparative to 150 kg P2O5 ha-1 is a more economic and better approach to get optimum yield of maize in P deficient calcareous soils.
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