FIELD TRIAL OF PGPR, Bacillus megaterium E-U2-1, ON SOME VEGETABLE SPECIES

Abstract

Excessive and unconscious use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in crop production causes deterioration of soil health, environmental pollution, and an increase in the population of pathogens and pests in the soil. There are many toxic and dangerous chemicals in agricultural ecosystems, and they get into plants, soil, groundwater, and food. As an alternative way to solve this problem, it is very important to use beneficial microorganisms, to use biological agents instead of chemicals in agriculture, and to promote the resistance to biotic and abiotic stress conditions and to increase the yield of plants. Microbial fertilizers, which are becoming increasingly widespread in plant production, are produced from formulations containing Bacillus megaterium, especially from Bacillus group bacteria. In this study, Bacillus megaterium, E-U2-1 (OL673801 EU. U21-NCBI accession code) strain carrying phytase, phosphatase, siderophore, and indole acetic acid encoding genes was used for the trials. A field trial was carried out with some vegetable species (pepper, eggplant, cucumber, watermelon, melon, and snake cucumber) with high economic value. In the study, 5 ml, 10 ml, and 15 ml of bacterial suspensions with 3x107 cfu were applied per plant from the soil. It was determined that it increased vegetative growth and shortened the flowering period in all species. The effect of the bacterial application on the important agronomic properties of vegetables was investigated, and it was determined that especially 10 ml and 15 ml applications had a positive effect on yield and quality parameters. A significant increase was recorded vegetatively, and while flowering was observed in the earlier period, it was determined that the number of flowers increased considerably. Accordingly, the fruit setting rate increased.