Effect of Microbial Seed Treatment on Root Growth of Wheat under Compacted Soil Condition

Microbial Seed Treatment on Root Growth of Wheat

Abstract

Soil compaction can seriously restrict root growth both in surface and subsurface soil layers, preventing the root system to uptake water and nutrients from deeper layers in wheat due to intensive puddling in rice. To understand the effect of compaction (BD₁ = bulk density 1.4 g cm^-3 and BD₂ = 1.8 g cm^-3) on root growth of wheat, a pot experiment was conducted in ambient condition during wheat growing period (November-April) in 2017-18. This experiment was done with microbially treated wheat seeds (M₁ to M₆) to observe the effects of microbial cultures on root growth under compacted soil condition in comparison to control where no seed treatment was done. BD₁ registered a marginally 28% higher root length density than BD₂. Among seed treatment with microbial cultures (MC), MC₅ resulted in highest root length density (23% higher than the control). Unlike root length density, root volume density was influenced significantly (p<0.05) by microbial seed inoculation, although soil compaction had marginal impact. Average diameter of root varied significantly among treatments due to both soil compaction and microbial seed treatment (p<0.01). Average diameter was significantly higher (20%, p<0.01) in BD₂ than BD₁. MC₂ recorded higher (45-33%, p<0.01) root diameter than other treatments but was comparable with MC₃. It can be concluded that Seed treatment with suitable microbial culture can promote the crop growth in general and root growth in particular under compacted soil condition.

Keywords: Soil compaction, root length density, root diameter, seed treatment, microbial culture.