Cultivar’s Response to Rhizobium and Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria for Nodulation, Growth and Yield in Garden Pea (Pisum sativum var. Hortense)

Background: The research, conducted throughout the 2019-20 period, aims to investigate the response of garden pea cultivars to rhizobium and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB) in terms of nodulation, growth and yield. The objectives included examining the influence of rhizobium and PSB on nodulation ability and studying the yield response of different cultivars under co-inoculation. Additionally, the research attempted to investigate nitrogen and phosphate uptake in several garden pea cultivars. Methods: The experiment utilized a Split-Split plot design, with main plots comprising five pea cultivars (P-89, AP-3, Bonneville, Arka Kartliik and Arka Apoorva), sub-plots with rhizobium inoculationand sub-sub plots with PSB inoculations. Each variety had four treatments: Uninoculated control, rhizobium, PSB and rhizobium+PSB. Result: In terms of growth and yield metrics, AP-3 exhibited the quickest days to 50% flowering, whereas Arka Apoorva displayed the tallest plant height (109.93 cm). P-89 stood out in yield characteristics, including pod weight (7.34 g), number of pods per plant (41.99) and green pod yield (126.75 q/ha). Rhizobium and PSB co-inoculations were found to have a considerable impact on yield gains. Regarding quality metrics, Bonneville pods had the greatest TSS content (16.90 Brix) and AP-3 had the highest dry matter content (23.60%). Nodulation experiments found that P-89 had the maximum number of nodules per plant (75.56) and demonstrated the highest uptake of both nitrogen and phosphorus. Overall, the dual inoculation of Rhizobium + PSB outperformed single inoculation and the uninoculated control in all recorded parameters.