Evaluation of biofertilizers prepared from local bacterial isolates in some growth traits of corn plant in gypsiferous soil

Abstract

For clean and sustainable agriculture based on non-chemical natural products and  reduce the use of chemicals and move towards natural alternatives, a field experiment was conducted with a completely randomized block design (R.C.B.D) at the research station of the Department of Soil and Water Resources in the fields of the College of Agriculture / Tikrit University  for the autumn agricultural season ( 2021-2022) on the corn plant to study the effect of six biofertilizers prepared from local bacterial isolates in gypsiferous soil, which included:  Bradyrhizobium manausense, Bradyrhizobium vignae, Rhizobium sp., Enterobacter cloaca, Enterobacter ludwigii, Bacillus cereus, The results showed that all inoculated treatments were significantly superior to the control treatment in all growth traits of corn plant, it also appeared that a significant superiority of Enterobacter cloacae  biofertilizer  in all plant traits: plant height, leaf area, dry weight of plant, concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the plant as it is recorded 235.8 cm, 630.3 cm², 137.5 gm plant^-1, 2.93 N %, 0.95 P %, 4.49 K %  respectively, compared to the control treatment which recorded 175.3 cm, 447.3 cm², 73.4 gm plant^-1, 0.807 N %, 0.14 P %, 1.95 K %  respectively.