STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZA AND PHOSPHATE SOLUBILIZING BACTERIA UNDER REDUCED FERTILIZER APPLICATION ON TOMATO

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at department of agricultural microbiology, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India to evaluate the performance of tomato inoculated with Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) when the fertilizer application was reduced to 50% and 25% of the recommended fertilizer dose (RDF). The results of the study revealed that, inoculation of tomato with AM and PSB significantly increased all the parameters examined during the study. However, the best results were obtained when the seedlings were inoculated with AM followed by PSB at 50 % of the RDF as evident from 16.6% and 12.6% increase in the total plant dry weight at the respective treatments as compared to control. Similarly the concentration of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in the plants inoculated with AM at 50 % of the RDF was increased by 17.3, 20.6 and 23.2% followed by an increase of 2.5, 11.5, and 12.2% at PSB with 50 % RDF as compared to control. Yield of tomato was respectively increased by 9.7% and 4.4 % when inoculated with AM and PSB at 50 % of RDF as compared to control.