Journal of Environmental Biology

Effect of co-inoculations of native PGPR with nitrogen fixing bacteria on seedling traits in Prosopis cineraria

S.K. Singh*, Anjly Pancholy, S.K. Jindal and Rakesh Pathak

Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur-342 003, India

*Corresponding Author?s Email : sksingh1111@hotmail.com

Publication Data

Paper received:

15 April 2013

Revised received:

15 August 2013

Accepted:

19 August 2013

Abstract

Prosopis cineraria significantly contribute to sand dune stabilization, soil fertility rejuvenation and is an integral component of agro-forestry systems in arid regions of India. Effect of different rhizobacterial seed treatments on seed germination and seedling traits in two genotypes of P. cineraria (HPY-1) and (FG-1) were tested. Observations on seed germination (%) and seedling traits viz., root length (cm), shoot length (cm), seedling weight (g) and seedling length of different treatments were recorded. Whereas, germination index (GI), seedling vigour index (SVI) and root/shoot length ratio were derived from the observed data. The scarification treatment with sulphuric acid for 10 minutes substantially enhanced germination from <20% to 80-82% in control treatments.Treatments with co-inoculations of Bacillus licheniformis and Sinorhizobium kostiense or S. saheli supported the maximum seed germination and seedling growth and vigour. The maximum germination per cent (92.5%), seedling length (10.94 cm), seedling vigour index (10.12) and germination index (7.97) were recorded with treatment (V2T6) wherein seeds of high pod yielding genotype were co-inoculated with Bacillus licheniformis and S. kostiense. The higher positive correlations of seedling length v/s shoot length followed by SVI v/s seedling length, SVI v/s root length and seedling length v/s root length is a fair indicative of inter dependency of these characteristics. Higher R² values of root length v/s shoot length followed by that of SVI v/s GI indicates that a regression line fits the data well and future outcomes of observed seedling traits are likely to be predicted by the model. 

Key words

Germination index, Prosopis cineraria, Scarification, Seed treatment, Seedling vigour

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