Comparative study of impact of Azotobacter and Trichoderma with other fertilizers on maize growth

Abstract

Biofertilizers may be a better eco-friendly option to maintain soil fertility. The study was conducted to investigate the effect of Azotobacter and Trichoderma on the vegetative growth of maize (Zea mays L.) plants. The experiment was carried out in medium sized pots, at IAAS, Lamjung (Feb 2017 -May 2017 in completely randomized design (CRD), consisting eight treatments and three replications. Treatments were namely T1 (control), T2 (Azotobacter), T3 (Trichoderma), T4 (Azotobacter + Trichoderma), T5 (NPK), T6 (Azotobacter + Trichoderma + FYM), T7 (Azotobacter + Trichoderma + FYM + NPK), T8 (FYM). Azotobacter showed a positive increase in plant height, stem girth, dry shoot weight, root length and width, and root weight while Trichoderma displayed either negative or minimal impact. Effect of FYM was lower than Azotobacter but considerably higher than Trichoderma. Trichoderma seriously inhibited the expression of Azotobacter when used together. Trichoderma even suppressed the outcome (except shoot weight) of FYM when used together. Root length was the longest in Azotobacter inoculation. The highest number of leaves was in T7 followed by Azotobacter (T2) and NPK (T5). Unlike leaf width, Azotobacter showed a negligible increase in leaves length while Trichoderma wherever present showed the negative impact. Minimum chlorophyll content was found in Azotobacter or Trichoderma after 73 days. Azotobacter treatment showed early tasseling than Trichoderma. The association of Azotobacter and Trichoderma increased the biomass. Azotobacter has significant effects on growth parameters of maize and can supplement chemical fertilizer, while Trichoderma was found to inhibit most of the growth parameters.

Effectiveness of Inorganic Fertilizer and Biofertilizer Application on Maize Yield and Fertilizer Use Efficiency on Inceptisol from West Java

“…Therefore, the application of biofertilizer can increase the maize yield, besides that it makes use of NPK fertilizers more efficient as much as 50% of the recommended level. The same results were indicated by Mahato and Neupane (2017), which showed that the combination of chemical fertilizers and biofertilizer provides higher yields of corn than the use of chemical fertilizers, thus reducing the amount of chemical fertilizers used during cultivation. According to Zarabi et al (2011), adding organic fertilizer will increase water use efficiency, optimize photosynthesis and stimulate plant growth and development.…”

Effect of Trichoderma Viride as Biofertilizer on Growth and Yield of Wheat

“…Though our finding of Trichoderma is as a growth promoter with certain limitations, Trichoderma has been fully supported as a growth promoter on numerous cultivated plants [16,32,33,36]. This specified the potential use of the biofertilizers as a reasonable alternative for crop production, with a minimization of the ecological impact and improvement of soil ecology.…”

“…As inorganic fertilizer 120 kg of urea for nitrogen, 80 kg of MOP for potassium and 80 kg of DAP for phosphorous were used as NPK source for a hectare [36]. Urea has 46 % of nitrogen, DAP has 46 % of phosphorous and 18 % nitrogen while MOP has 60 % of potassium.…”

Comprehensive Account of Inoculation and Coinoculation in Soybean

“…Organic and inorganic fertilizers such as NPK fertilizer and farmyard manure used along with PGPR, i.e., Azotobacter and Trichoderma, are reported to produce the highest biomass yield [140]. However, the inoculation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum on seeds increased grain yield of soybean by 8.4% (222 kg/ha), while its coinoculation with A. brasilense in furrow yielded 16.1% (427 kg/ha) without applying any external N source [141].…”