EFFECT OF MICROBIAL ADDITIVES AND COMPOST TEA ON GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY OF WHEAT PLANTS FERTILIZED BY MINERAL NITROGEN IN SANDY SOIL

Abstract

Because of widespread criticisms of extensive usage of the synthetic agrochemicals, the most research papers have an interest in the clean and sustainable agricultural practices with attention in resurgence environmental health. A field experiment was conducted in the sandy soil during winter season of 2015/2016 at experimental farm, ARC, Ismaillia Governorate, Egypt to study the effect of biological (microbial additives), organic (compost tea) fertilization and their combination on rhizosphere properties, growth and productivity of wheat crop under different levels of mineral nitrogen fertilizer. The microbial additive was applied as consortium of Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Azorhizobium caulinodans and Paenibacillus polymyxa, which cultured on commercial medium. Compost tea was used as organic fertilizer while nitrogen levels were applied at a rate of 50, 75 or 100 kg N /fed. The experimental treatments were planned in a one way randomized complete block design with three replicates. The obtained data showed that the rhizosphere activity of wheat plants was enhanced due to the addition of microbial additives in combined with compost tea and high dose of nitrogen fertilizer. Wheat plants exhibited significant responses to studied treatments with respect to vegetative growth, total nutrients content, wheat yield and yield attributes. The application of combination of microbial additives and compost tea with 75 kg N/fed revealed optimum treatment in terms of vegetative growth, total nutrients content, wheat yield and yield components.