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Abstract
Expanding eco-friendly approaches to improve plant growth and crop productivity is of great important for sustainable agriculture. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture Farm, Mansoura University, Egypt during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons to study the effects of different bio- and organic fertilizers and their combination on hybrid maize growth, yield, and grain quality. Seeds were treated with Azotobacter chrocoocum, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Bacillus circulans, biogas slurry, humic acid (HA), and their combination aiming to increase the growth and yield of maize and to reduce the need for chemical fertilizers. The results showed that combined application of the biofertilizer mixture (Azotobacter chrocoocum, AMF, and Bacillus circulans) with organic fertilizers enhanced maize growth, yield, and nutrient uptake. Moreover, the bio-organic fertilization has improved the soluble sugars, starch, carbohydrates, protein, and amino acid contents in maize seeds. Additionally, the bio-organic fertilization caused an obvious increase in the microbial activity by enhancing acid phosphatase and dehydrogenase enzymes, bacterial count, and mycorrhizal colonization levels in maize rhizosphere as compared with the chemical fertilization. Additionally, the bio-organic fertilizers has improved α-amylase and gibberellins (GA) activities and their transcript levels, as well as decreased the abscisic acid (ABA) level in the seeds as compared to the chemical fertilizers. The obtained results of bio-organic fertilization on the growth parameters and yield of maize recommend their use as an alternative tool to reduce chemical fertilizers.
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world both as food and feed.Its total world production ranks third, following wheat and rice, and it is consider a staple food in Agronomy 2020, 10, 319; doi:10.3390/agronomy10030319 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomyAgronomy 2020, 10, 319 many countries, especially those in the tropics and sub-tropics [1,2,3,4]
A. chroococcum SARS 101 and up to the 6th day (27.05 μg/mL) for B. circulans ARC-SWERI-2, the indole acetic acid (IAA) production was decreased by both strains (Figure 1)
The results reveal that he application of biogas slurry, humic acid, biofertilizer mixture, and their combination resulted in significant increases in the plant height, leaf and root dry weight, leaf area, and chlorophyll content as compared with the chemical fertilizers at both 100%
Summary
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world both as food and feed.Its total world production ranks third, following wheat and rice, and it is consider a staple food in Agronomy 2020, 10, 319; doi:10.3390/agronomy10030319 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomyAgronomy 2020, 10, 319 many countries, especially those in the tropics and sub-tropics [1,2,3,4]. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world both as food and feed. Its total world production ranks third, following wheat and rice, and it is consider a staple food in Agronomy 2020, 10, 319; doi:10.3390/agronomy10030319 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy. In Egypt, maize is considered the second most important crop, where the annual production of the grain reached about 6.8 million tons from 315,000 hectares in 2018 [5]. Maize is a major source of oil, gluten, and starch, which can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, high fructose corn syrup. High consumption of the nitrogen fertilizers by new cultivars of maize plant has significantly increased by 59.60% in the last few years, which causes serious environmental problems [8]
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