Abstract
Potassium is essential for plant metabolism; improves immunity to stress and increase crop productivity. Soil contains insoluble form of potassium, which is unavailable for plant absorption. Potash mobilizing bacteria (KMB) solubilise complex potassium and make it available to plant. KMB with plant growth promoting (PGP) traits could enhance growth and crop productivity. Here we attempt to screen KMBs with PGP traits from different agroclimatic zones of Odisha and study dynamics of potassium in soil. Isolation of KMB and determination of PGP traits was performed with standard protocols. Pot culture experiment was aimed to study their effect on sunflower crop. Available soil potassium was quantified using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Thirty KMBs were isolated from different agro-climatic zones of Odisha, out of which 6 isolates exhibited maximum PGP traits. Moreover, after adding inoculums the available soil potassium decreased over 0 to 30 days as compared to control, with increase in shoot length. T7 (consortium) reported maximum (144 %) increase in shoot length. Available soil potassium content decreased with increase in time. A maximum decrease was reported in T7 (26.31 %), suggesting potassium accumulation by plant.
Highlights
Potassium (K), a vital macro-nutrient absorbed by plants from the soil, which enters into the food chain to meet requirement of animals including human (Morgan and Connolly, 2013)
Soil is rich with potassium, about 90-98 % is chemically bound in the crystal lattice structure of the minerals and unavailable for plant uptake (Gurav et al, 2019)
One g of soil sample was suspended in 10 ml sterile distilled water, logarithmic dilutions were made upto 10-4level and 100 μl suspensions was spread on nutrient agar plate (NA)
Summary
Potassium (K), a vital macro-nutrient absorbed by plants from the soil, which enters into the food chain to meet requirement of animals including human (Morgan and Connolly, 2013). In soil the total K content ranges from 0.01 % to 4 %, usually about 1 % (Sparks, 1987; Blake et al, 1999). In Odisha, soil K content was 36.7- 458.3 kgha-1 against the required amount of 110-280 kgha-1. Soil is rich with potassium, about 90-98 % is chemically bound in the crystal lattice structure of the minerals and unavailable for plant uptake (Gurav et al, 2019). Total K content of Odisha soil ranges between 0.3 to 3.0 % of which non exchangeable K comprises 21-61 % and exchangeable K constitue 12.5-35.7 % (Jena et al, 2009)
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