The role of mycorrhiza and humic acid on quantitative and qualitative traits of faba bean plant under different fertilizer regimes

Abstract

One of the aspects of sustainable management in agricultural ecosystems is reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and the application of organic and biological fertilizers. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted with the aim of investigating mycorrhizal fungi and humic acid on quantitative and qualitative traits of faba bean in different levels of chemical fertilizers in the research farm of Islamic Azad University, Chalous Branch in 2019 and 2020. Factors included humic acid and mycorrhiza application at four levels (control (distilled water), humic acid (400 mg L-1 ha-1), humic acid+mycorrhiza and mycorrhiza) and NPK at three levels (50, 75 and 100% Recommended dose). The results showed that the use of humic acid and mycorrhiza had a significant effect on the quantitative and qualitative traits of faba bean. The highest chlorophyll a level of 75 and 100% NPK was obtained by using humic acid + mycorrhiza. The combined application of humic acid and mycorrhiza showed the highest number of seeds per pod, number of pods and weight of 100 seeds. In humic acid + mycorrhiza treatment, there was no significant difference between 100 and 75% NPK fertilizer application in grain yield and biological traits. The highest grain yield was obtained with the combined application of humic acid + mycorrhiza at the level of 100 and 75% NPK at the rate of 4356 and 4322 kg ha-1, respectively. Also, the highest levels of Fe, N, P, K and Zn were observed with the combined application of humic acid+mycorrhiza at 100% level of NPK. In general, the results showed that the combined use of humic acid and mycorrhiza has been able to reduce the use of NPK fertilizer by 25%.