Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Mehboobatabassum FH, P Jones Nirmalnath, Santhosh GP and Asif Waratadar

Abstract:
Soil salinity frequently hinders plant health and productivity in both natural and agricultural system. Among various beneficial microorganisms arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi being used to reduce the negative effects of salinity, the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Pink Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophs (PPFMs) is considered to be a competent approach for bio-amelioration of salinity stress. In this regard a pot experiment was conducted at Department of Agricultural Microbiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during the year 2020-21 using native soils from Gangavathi of Koppal district having two EC levels viz., 6 and 8 dS m^-1 to test the synergistic effect of three AM fungal consortia and methylobacterial consortium in influencing the growth and physiological parameters of vetiver plants. The results of the present investigation has revealed that the soil application of saline tolerant UASDAMFSL consortia along with two sprays of methylobacterial consortium at 30 and 45 DAP significantly enhanced the plant growth parameters; plant height (109 cm at 120 DAP), number of leaves (56.35 at 120 DAP), relative chlorophyll content (41.89), dry biomass like shoot dry weight (53.45g/plant) and root biomass (39.67g/plant) compared to uninoculated control (73cm, 34.33, 30.29, 28.26 g/plant and 30.92 g/plant). Thus, our prelimnary findings are of positive indicative of the effectiveness of application of AM Fungi and PPFM on growth and physiological parameters of vetiver even under varied salinity stress condition.