INFLUENCE OF FOLIAR SPRAY OF BIO-INOCULANT AND MICRONUTRIENT ON SOIL BIOLOGY AND YIELD IN BROCCOLI

Abstract

The experiment was carried out in the years 2021-22, at the Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (Chhattisgarh). The study involved application of foliar spray of bio-inoculants and micronutrient; Ammonium Molybdate. Bio-inoculants; Azotobacter and Azospirillum inoculation strains were collected from Microbiology repository and were revived for biochemical characteristics on Jensen’s and Okon’s media respectively. Both the isolates showed positive reaction for starch hydrolysis test, catalase test, urease test and oxidase test. Plant parameters evaluated include biomass accumulation and fruit weight per plant. The experimental results revealed that significantly maximum fruit weight per plant (359.0g), dry shoot biomass (16.6g/ plant), dry root biomass (8.6g/ plant) were recorded under T4 (IF + Foliar Application of Bio-inoculants and Ammonium molybdate 0.2%). Besides higher microbial population, Azotobacter (44.3 x 103 cfu/ g of soil), Azospirillum (28.5x 103 cfu/ g of soil) were also observed to be significant under T4. Dehydrogenase activity in rhizosphere soils was found maximum 27.3 µg TPF/g soil/h under T4 (IF + Foliar Application of Bio-inoculants and Ammonium molybdate 0.2%) at 60DAT. Thus application of Bio-inoculants along with Ammonium molybdate (0.2%) as foliar spray along with 50% inorganic fertilizer proved to be the most effective and may be adopted in Broccoli cultivation.