Avinash D. Patil, Tamilvendan, K. and Mahadevaswamy
Abstract
A total of 450 salt tolerant bacterial isolates were isolated from saline rhizospheric soils of Tungabhadra command area, on nutrient agar medium at different salt concentration (1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 per cent), could also able to grow at 12 per cent salt. Out of which, morphological, biochemical and PGPR activity tests of 20 isolates were carried out. These tests revealed, GP-21 as an efficient P- solubilizer, GS-36 as nitrogen fixer (0.018 per cent) and MP-63 as IAA producer (21.2 μg 50 ml-1). Seed inoculation of salt tolerant bacteria on flowering of mungbean was evaluated under pot culture. Combined inoculation of GP-21 + GS-36 + MP-63 made the plant to flower early (23.3 DAS) compared to individual inoculations and uninoculated control (39.6 DAS) and made the plant to set the maximum number of flowers (6.67 flowers plant-1) at 30 DAS, compared to individual inoculations and uninoculated control (1.67 and 3.33 flowers plant-1) at 30 and 60 DAS, respectively and ultimately resulted in higher seed yield (1.58 g plant-1) of mungbean under elevated salt stress (200 mM NaCl), compared to uninoculated control (0.33 g plant-1).