INFLUENCE OF FOLIAR SPRAY OF BIO-INOCULANT ANDMICRONUTRIENT ON SOIL BIOLOGY AND YIELD IN BROCCOLIGEETA CHANDRA AND DIPTIMAYEE DASHAbstract The experiment was carried out in the years 2021-22, at the Department of AgriculturalMicrobiology, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (Chhattisgarh). The study involvedapplication of foliar spray of bio-inoculants and micronutrient; Ammonium Molybdate. Bio-inoculants;Azotobacter and Azospirillum inoculation strains were collected from Microbiology repository and wererevived for biochemical characteristics on Jensenâs and Okonâs media respectively. Both the isolates showedpositive reaction for starch hydrolysis test, catalase test, urease test and oxidase test. Plant parametersevaluated include biomass accumulation and fruit weight per plant. The experimental results revealed thatsignificantly maximum fruit weight per plant (359.0g), dry shoot biomass (16.6g/ plant), dry root biomass(8.6g/ plant) were recorded under T4 (IF + Foliar Application of Bio-inoculants and Ammonium molybdate0.2%). Besides higher microbial population, Azotobacter (44.3 x 103cfu/ g of soil), Azospirillum (28.5x 103cfu/g of soil) were also observed to be significant under T4. Dehydrogenase activity in rhizosphere soils wasfound maximum 27.3 μg TPF/g soil/h under T4 (IF + Foliar Application of Bio-inoculants and Ammoniummolybdate 0.2%) at 60DAT. Thus application of Bio-inoculants along with Ammonium molybdate (0.2%) asfoliar spray along with 50% inorganic fertilizer proved to be the most effective and may be adopted inBroccoli cultivation. |