Effect of Dual Inoculation of Rhizobium Leguminosarum Biovar Phaseoli and Piriformospora Indica verma et al. on Phaseolus Vulgaris Grown in the Soil Treated with Vermicompost

Abstract

A pot culture experiment was conducted to study the effect of dual inoculation of Rhizobiumleguminosarumbiovarphaseoli andPiriformospora indicaon the growth ofPhaseolus vulgarisL.grown in soil treated with vermicompost. French bean (PhaseolusvulgarisL.) were grown withand without vermicompost, inoculated, or uninoculated withR. l biovar phaseoli and P. indicasingly or in combination using sterile soil. Treatment effects on plant growth, percent rootcolonization, and nutrient uptake of plants were evaluated. In the flowering stage,dual inoculated plants with or without vermicompost showed the bestnodulation compared to other treatments. Rhizobial inoculation positively influenced nodulation ofplants. Dual inoculation withRhizobiumandP. indicasignificantly increased shoot length, rootlength, shoot fresh weight, and root fresh weight as compared to rest of the treatment. Dualinoculated plants withRhizobiumandP. indica increased the shoot length by 26.58%, root lengthby 46.26%, shoot fresh weight by 62.58%, shoot dry weight by 44.21%, root fresh weight by112.50%, and root dry weight by 86.67% respectively over the control plant. However, the resultswere notstatistically significant forshoot and root dry weight,although all the treatments showedgreater shoot and root dry weightthan the control plants. Inharvestingstage, shoot length, root length, shoot weight, root weight,pod number, pod freshweight and dry weight were more pronounced in dual inoculated plants with vermicompostcompared to other treatments.Dual inoculated plants withRhizobiumand P. indicaalong withvermicompost increased the shoot length by 21.97%, root length by 61.74%, shoot fresh weight by54.32%, shoot dry weight by 83.92%, root fresh weight by 152.94%, root dry weight by 147.61%,pod number by 107.33%, pod fresh weight by 84.08% and pod dry weight by 160% respectivelyover the control plants. Shoot and root NPK uptakewere significantly higher in dual inoculatedplants with vermicompost compared to rest of the treatment. The percentage increased in shoot androot nitrogen, shoot and root phosphorous and shoot and root potassium in dual inoculated plantsalong with vermicompost were 78.85%, 156.75%, 72.72%, 105.26%, 51.71%, and 66.15%respectively over the control plants.Percent root colonization byP. indicawas significantly higherin dual inoculated plants with or without vermicompost. Control and the plantswithout P. indicainoculation were devoid of any rootcolonization.Percent root colonization byP. indica was foundto be increased in fruiting stage than in flowering stage. Ingeneral, dual inoculation showed better results than single inoculation andbetter positiveeffectsof dual inoculation were observed in plants grown in vermicompost treated soil than vermicompostnon-treated soil suggesting higher dependency of vermicompost on these symbionts for bettergrowth and development.