Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PHOSPHATE SOLUBILIZING POTENTIAL OF BACILLUS PUMILUS FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF CAULIFLOWER (BRASSICA OLERACEA VAR. BOTRYTIS L.)

Bhawna Dipta, Shruti Kirti, Sonal Bhardwaj, Shweta Gupta and Rajesh Kaushal

Abstract

The present investigations were aimed at testing the efficacy for P-solubilization from different P-sources, i.e. tricalcium phosphate (TCP), rock phosphate (RP) and bone meal (BM) by indigenous phosphate solubilizing bacterial isolates viz. MK5, MK7 and MK9 at 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm for 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h of incubation. Results revealed that MK5 (Bacilus pumilus) solubilized the maximum TCP (538.7 μg/ mL) having viable count of 45.67×106 with mean drop in final pH (4.21) of the supernatant at a concentration of 500 ppm after 72 h of incubation. So, it was further applied under net house conditions and reported increased number of non wrapper leaves (68.36, 22.87 and 29.53%), curd diameter (78.86, 48.29 and 60.65%), curd depth (80.34, 30.49 and 38.96%), curd weight (72.24, 39.50 and 55.37%) and curd yield (30.85, 17.94 and 26.76%) over T1 (uninoculated absolute control), T2 (uninoculated+TCP) and T3 (uninoculated+RP) treatments, respectively. It also improved soil properties in terms of nutrients i.e. maximum available N (384.6 Kg ha-1), P (143.7 Kg ha-1) and K (273.6 Kg ha-1) in T4 treatment which was 21.5%, 55.0%, 26.4%, respectively, higher over initial soil nutrient content. Hence, Bacillus pumilus with inorganic P-source can be used to enhance growth, yield and quality of cauliflower under mid hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh.