Abstract
Zinnia and Balsam are flowering plants with high economic importance in floriculture. Inoculation of the planting medium with a beneficial microbial consortium is an innovative approach to produce quality and healthy seedlings in floriculture. In the present study the influence of a microbial consortium of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Funneliformis mosseae and a plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) Bacillus sonorensis on flowering plants Zinnia and Balsam in pro-trays under poly house conditions was investigated. Estimation of various plant growth parameters such as plant height, stem diameter, bio-volume index, vigour index, plant strength, fresh weight, dry weight and nutrient uptake was carried out to analyse the ability of the consortium to improve seedling growth. Microbial parameters such as mycorrhizal root colonization and spore count, and population of PGPR in substrate was also studied. The results suggested that inoculating the substrate in pro trays before sowing the seeds with the consortium increased plant growth significantly compared to the uninoculated plants.
Highlights
Sustainable agriculture aims at maintaining soil fertility for a long time and achieving optimized yield using low input [1]
There was an increase in shoot length, root length and stem diameter of zinnia and balsam when treated with the microbial consortium (Table 1)
There was a significant increase in the fresh weight and dry weight of zinnia and balsam treated with the microbial consortium when compared to the control (Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2)
Summary
Sustainable agriculture aims at maintaining soil fertility for a long time and achieving optimized yield using low input [1]. It focuses on producing long term crops and increases the biodiversity by providing a healthy environment for the organisms to live [2]. The Pro tray nursery is a recent technology widely gaining popularity for quality seedling production. Such seedlings have an independent area for each seedling; improved seed germination, better root development, easy handling, cheaper transportation and better establishment of the crop when transplanted in the main field [7,8]
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