Abstract
It is well known that carbon-based organic fertilizer can effectively promote crop growth and improve nutrient utilization efficiency. However, little is known about the effect of microorganisms on the nutrient availability of carbon-based organic fertilizer. To elucidate the contribution of microorganisms to the agricultural benefit of colloidal biochar-based fertilizer, a 5-month pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of different combinations of Methyltrophic bacillus, colloidal biochar, and organic fertilizer on physical–chemical properties of soil, plant growth, physiological-biochemical reactions, yield, and quality of tomato. The results show that the addition of Methyltrophic bacillus effectively promoted the availability of soil nutrients (such as nitrate nitrogen and available potassium) and increased soil cation exchange capacity; meanwhile, it significantly increased the content of chlorophyll-a (9.42–27.41%) and promoted the net photosynthetic rate (10.86–13.73%) and biomass of tomato fruit (17.84–26.33%). The contents of lycopene, vitamin C, total sugar, and soluble sugar in the fruits treated by the ternary combination of Methyltrophic bacillus, colloidal biochar, and organic fertilizer increased by 58.40%, 46.53%, 29.45%, and 26.65%, respectively. The above results demonstrate that the addition of beneficial microorganisms could further improve the performance of biochar-based fertilizer on plant growth, yield, and fruit quality of tomato. This information provides evidence for the promising performance of microorganism-supported biochar organic fertilizer in agricultural applications.
Highlights
Biochar (BC), a man-made form of black carbon, is produced by pyrolysis or gasification of organic matter without or with limited oxygen and is rich in organic carbon, mineral elements, and inorganic carbonates [1]
The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of T4 and T5 treatments was significantly higher than that of T1, which may be enhanced by the self-metabolism of microorganisms in the processes of both compost fermentation and plant growth
Organic fertilizer had a large number of humus and oxygen-containing functional groups and its surfaces might have a variety of binding sites for cations, which improved the CEC of soil [37]
Summary
Biochar (BC), a man-made form of black carbon, is produced by pyrolysis or gasification of organic matter without or with limited oxygen and is rich in organic carbon, mineral elements, and inorganic carbonates [1]. Methylotrophic bacteria utilize the plant waste to product methanol as the source of carbon and energy and enhances plant growth by producing growth hormones, such as indole-3-acetic acid [14] and cytokinins [15]. It can produce beneficial metabolites and promote plant growth through antagonism, competition, and induction [16,17]. We put forward a scientific hypothesis that microbial agents can further accelerate the nutrient transformation in BC-based organic fertilizer, effectively promote the absorption and utilization of nutrients by plants, and improve the fertilizer utilization efficiency
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