5624
Amr Mostafa Ahmed Mostafa
Potential Of Various Microbial Inoculants On Oil Production Of Chamomile Plant Under Organic Cultivation Conditions
Chamomile, biofertilization, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), Organic agriculture, inoculation methods, bacterial shelf life, bacteria immobilization
Chamomile is one of the most wide spread medicinal plant cultivated in Egypt. It is a herb which belongs to family Asteraceae. Fertilization is the main limiting factor of the plant productivity. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) maximize the availability of nutrients necessary for plant growth and productivity. This work aimed at enhancement of blossoms and oil production of chamomile plants via biofertilization with PGPRs under organic farming system. In this study, 6 bacterial strains (Streptomyces subrutilus, Bacillus subtilis, Paenibacillus polymyxa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Stenotrophomonas rhizophyla and Serratia plymuthica) were applied using 2 different inoculation techniques. The first application method was throughout soaking the roots of seedlings in the bacterial suspension before transplanting. The second technique was by adding the bacterial inocula to soil 2 weeks after transplantation. Inoculation was carried out after 6 hours from irrigation. The results showed that root dipping method displayed high impact on the yield of chamomile blossoms and essential oil percentage. Furthermore, the soil application of the bacterial inocula didn’t show any significant impact in this respect. Where P. polymyxa, B. subtilis, S. plymuthica and S. subrutilus increased the dry weight of chamomile blossoms compared to the control, essential oil content increased significantly in case of S. plymuthica, S. rhizophyla and B. subtilis. The current results also indicated that bacterial strains produced the highest indole-3-acetic acid and gibberellic acid (B. subtilis and S. plymuthica) resulted in the highest yield of both flowers and essential oil.
2020
M.Sc
Cairo
Agriculture