Abstract
Background: Increasing population and food consumption are placing unprecedented demands on crop production. Maize is one of the most important food crops in the world, the improvement of its yield primarily depends on the application of chemical fertilizer. Methods: Earthworm activity is an essential factor in promoting soil fertility and stimulating plant growth. Inspired by amino acids composition of earthworm (Eisenia fetida) epidermal mucus, the liquid fertilizer was developed and prepared by utilizing a bionic approach. The influence of earthworm epidermal mucus (mucus), the mucus-mimicked mixture of amino acids (bionic fertilizer) and urea fertilizer (urea) on maize emergence and growth were studied and compared with the control group (distilled water). Experimental cultivation tests were conducted. The aforementioned three types of liquid fertilizer effects on maize seed vigor index, seedling emergence rate and plant quality were quantitatively evaluated. Results: Based on the conducted research, it was found that the beneficial effects of different fertilizers for maize emergence rate were ranked as follows: mucus > bionic fertilizer > urea. The low concentration treatments were beneficial to the maize emergence, while the high concentration treatments were helpful to the maize growth and root development. Besides, the lower concentration of mucus was the most effective fertilizer treatment for improving seedling quality. In addition, the test results of three types of liquid fertilizer effects on maize growth indicated that the higher concentration treatments provided more nitrogen nutrition than lower concentration treatments. Furthermore, the maize stem height and diameter were significantly promoted (p < 0.05) by the three types of liquid fertilizer. The beneficial influences of liquid fertilizer treatments for plant height, stem diameter, relative chlorophyll content and photosynthetic characteristic of leaves were ranked as follows: bionic fertilizer > urea > mucus. Conclusions: Bionic fertilizer demonstrated significant beneficial fertilizing effects (p < 0.05), which increased soil nutrients, improved maize physiological parameters, promote its growth and improved dry matter accumulation. The tested results verified the effectiveness of bionic fertilizer on stimulating maize growth.
Highlights
Mokgophi et al [29] found E. fetida have great potential to be used to improve soil fertility and reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers in crop production; Raza et al [81] indicated E. fetida as ecological engineers that help to enhance reactive nutrients in a sustainable way; Wen et al [82] demonstrated that Eisenia fetida has beneficial effects on the bioavailability of rare earth elements in soil, thereby increased biomass of wheat shoots and roots
The effects of different liquid fertilizer treatments on maize emergence rate and emergence index are shown in Figure 2 and Supplementary Materials Figure S3
The results showed that the SPAD value of maize leaves under high concentration fertilization treatments was higher than that of low concentration treat ments
Summary
Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture. To meet the world’s future food security and sustainability needs, food production needs to grow substantially [1]. Increase in the cultivable area is remarkably slow [2]. The rapidly growing population and slowly expanding cultivated land necessitate the extensive application of fertilizers [3]. The widespread application of chemical fertilizer is the promising approach to improve crop yield [4,5]. A dramatic growth in crop production mainly contributed to fertilization has Sustainability 2021, 13, 4299.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
