Impact of microbial inoculants on growth of Taxus wallichiana Zucc under nursery conditions

Abstract

newline The pressing demand for tree production in forests with a significant reduction in the newlineuse of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides is a big challenge nowadays. Plant newlineGrowth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and fungi being the beneficial microbes newlinewhich are widely studied by microbiologists and agronomists because of their newlinepotential in increasing crop production and offer various ways to replace chemical newlinefertilizers, pesticides, etc., and thus has significantly led to their increased demand. newlineDuring the present study, the microbial inoculants (Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus safensis, newlinePenicillium griseoroseum, Trichoderma harzianum) were inoculated in different newlinetreatments to ascertain the impact on vegetative growth of Taxus wallichiana Zucc. newline(Himalayan yew) stem cuttings under nursery conditions and to determine the effect newlineon nutrient status of stem cuttings as well as on chemical and microbiological newlinecharacteristics of the growing medium. The pot experiment was laid out in newlineCompletely Randomized Design (CRD) with 10 treatments including control and 3 newlinereplications with plot size comprising of 30 pots. The various growth characteristics newlineviz., plant height, collar diameter, root length, biomass (shoot, root and total plant newlinebiomass) after interval of two months responded significantly to all the microbial newlineinoculants under different treatments as compared to control. The combined treatment newlineof the microbial inoculants proved beneficial for all the growth parameters as newlinecompared to isolated treatments and an increasing trend in all the growth parameters newlinewas noticed upto December of the study period and in February it remains same as no newlinegrowth was observed. The combined treatment of microbial inoculants also increased newlinetotal nutrient content (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) of Taxus wallichiana stem cuttings than newlinecontrol with a slight decrease during later months of the study period. However, total newlinecalcium content was maximum upto February. Likewise the chemical characteristics newlineof growing medium (EC, OC, available......