Exploring the influence of microbial inoculant formulations on vegetative growth of aerobic rice

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to know the effect of liquid inoculant formulation along with lignite based formulations in the presence and absence of nutrients and at two forms of available and unavailable forms of phosphorous (KH2PO4 and North Carolina Rock Phosphate (NCRP)) on aerobic rice variety MAS-26 as test plant. There was no significant difference in the liquid and lignite formulation in number of tillers. The same trend has been observed in shoot dry weight where there was no significant difference in formulation. Only the source of P as KH2PO4 has resulted in higher shoot dry weight compared to rock phosphate and nutrient control. Maximum root dry weight of aerobic rice was observed in plants inoculated with P. fluorescens in liquid formulation. Total biomass of aerobic rice was not differed significantly due to inoculation of liquid and lignite formulation and at all the P sources. In contrast to this, highest chlorophyll content was observed in plants receiving P. fluorescens liquid formulation.