Fortified fertilizer application in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under water stress condition

Anser Ali

doi:10.19045/bspab.2019.80037

Abstract

Abstract Water stress is a major threat against wheat growth. The effects of induced stress can be reduced after by fortified fertilizer treated by Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB). With the objective to combat the water stress, two different experiments under net house and field condition were conducted. Three different states of fertilizer [F0: Control (no fertilizer application); F1: PGPB-coated fertilizer (urea and phosphorous) &F2: uncoated fertilizer (urea and phosphorous)]. In a pot experiment, wheat plants were applied fertilizer in raised and well-watered (60 percent of field capacity) and water stressed (40 percent of field capacity) conditions in soil filled pots. In experiment-II (field study), similar treatments of fertilizer were revised, but well-watered and water stress treatments/plots were irrigated for 60 seconds and 30 seconds respectively. At maturity plants were harvested and various morphological (number of tillers/plant, number of spikelet/spike, number of grains/spike, weight of grains, biological yield, economic yield and harvest index) and biochemical parameters (leaf nitrogen, phosphorous & potassium contents) of crop were recorded. Leaf chlorophyll and relative water contents of crop were also measured 60 days after sowing. In this study, it was demonstrated that the water stress adversely affected all the above mentioned parameters. The PGPB coated fertilizer application in wheat significantly increased (p<0.01 for pot and p<0.05 for field study) morphological and biochemical parameters in the presence and absence of water stress both under net house and field conditions. We can conclude from these findings that application of PGPB coated fertilizer is valuable strategy to mitigate the water stress impact on wheat with improved yield. Keywords: Coated fertilizer; Un-coated fertilizer; PGPB; Chlorophyll; Harvest inde http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2019.80037

Highlights

Keeping in view the significance of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) in plant growth promotion the present study has been planned with following objectives; i) to assess the role of PGPB-coated fertilizer application on wheat performance in the presence and absence of water stress ii) to know the impact of water stress on wheat crop iii) to compare the efficacy of PGPB-coated fertilizer application under net house & field conditions
Coated fertilizer application improved the said parameters of both experiments in the presence of stress
Similar trend was observed in water stress condition and maximum plant morphological characters were obtained in coated fertilizer followed by uncoated fertilizer application and lowest morphological parameters were recorded in without fertilizer treatment

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable crop production mainly depends upon water harvested from different sources. Materials and methods The current research was conducted in two different fashions simultaneously in net house (pot study) and field conditions to test the efficacy of fortified {coated with plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB)} fertilizer application in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under well-water and water stress condition. In six pots, coated nitrogen & phosphorus fertilizer (123-123 mg NP Kg-1 of soil) was applied to check the role of PGPB (plant growth promoting bacteria).

Results

Conclusion