INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF PGPR ON YIELD AND SOME YIELD COMPONENTS IN WINTER WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

The plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) that live actively in plant roots and rhizosphere and support plant growth has gained widespread importance in agriculture. This study was carried out to obtain and identify the PGPR isolates from wheat soil and determine their ability and capacity on plant growth and yield. So, they were obtained from soil, and they were identified as Bacillus spp. (B. simplex and B. pumilus) by biochemical tests and MALDI-TOF MS (Matriks assisted lazer desorption ionization time of flight massspectrometry). After the wheat seeds (Flamura-85) were treated for PGPR, the field experiment was conducted with inoculated and non-inoculated seeds at the area of the Field Crops Department, Tekirdag Namık Kemal University in 2016- 2018. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with three replicates for each treatment. In the experiment, some parameters such as plant height (PH), spike length (SL), number of grain per spike (NGPS), grain weight per spike (GWPS), and grain yield (GY) were evaluated and compared between treatments. The study has shown that PGPR treatments support plant growth and significantly increase yield between 9.6% and 29.29%. Especially, W3 and W4 strains (B. simplex) were showed a significant effect on the GY. According to the results, we can mention that using the PGPR promotes wheat growth and lead to increasing yield in the wheat. The use of PGPR can give promising results for sustainable and eco-friendly agricultural practices.