Some endophyte bacteria can improve plant growth and suppress plant diseases. However, little is known about the potential of endophytes bacteria to promote wheat growth and suppress the Fusarium seedling blight pathogen Fusarium graminearum. This study was conducted to isolate and identify endophytic bacteria and evaluate their efficacy for the plant growth promotion and disease suppression of Fusarium seedling blight (FSB) in wheat. The Pseudomonas poae strain CO showed strong antifungal activity in vitro and under greenhouse conditions against F. graminearum strain PH-1. The cell-free supernatants (CFSs) of P. poae strain CO were able to inhibit the mycelium growth, the number of colonies forming, spore germination, germ tube length, and the mycotoxin production of FSB with an inhibition rate of 87.00, 62.25, 51.33, 69.29, and 71.08%, respectively, with the highest concentration of CFSs. The results indicated that P. poae exhibited multifarious antifungal properties, such as the production of hydrolytic enzymes, siderophores, and lipopeptides. In addition, compared to untreated seeds, wheat plants treated with the strain showed significant growth rates, where root and shoot length increased by about 33% and the weight of fresh roots, fresh shoots, dry roots, and dry shoots by 50%. In addition, the strain produced high levels of indole-3-acetic acid, phosphate solubilization, and nitrogen fixation. Finally, the strain demonstrated strong antagonistic properties as well as a variety of plant growth-promoting properties. Thus, this result suggest that this strain could be used as an alternate to synthetic chemicals, which can serve as an effective method of protecting wheat from fungal infection.

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Optimal nutrient management is critical for optimizing flowering, yield, quality and improving soil health. A key approach for making chrysanthemum crop cultivation profitable is balanced fertigation at the right time. This is possible by fertigation through drip. The present study was designed in 2019–2021 at a model floriculture center, Pantnagar, to investigate the response of split application of NPK through drip fertigation on flowering attributes, yield, biochemical activity and soil nutrient status of chrysanthemum. Plants received application of NPK with five treatment combinations: T1-NPK @ 100:150:100 kg/ha/year, T2-NPK @ 100:150:100 kg/ha/year, T3-NPK @ 100:150:100 kg/ha/year, T4-NPK @ 75:112.5:75 kg/ha/year and T5-NPK @ 75:112.5:75 kg/ha/year at vegetative, bud and flowering stages. The results reveal that the plants treated with treatment T3 (NPK @ 100:150:100 kg/ha/year) exhibited maximum increases in floral bud diameter (31.45%), number of inflorescences per branch (24.44%), diameter of inflorescence (15.32–28.44%), weight of inflorescence (24.30%), stem diameter, inflorescence stem length, number of inflorescences per plant (6.16%), number of inflorescences per hectare (53.46%), chlorophyll a content, chlorophyll b content, total chlorophyll content (40.20%), carotene content of inflorescence (69.56%), organic carbon (1.22-fold), available nitrogen content (7.46%), available phosphorus and available potassium (1.14-fold) compared to the control. Conclusively, the results suggest that split application of NPK through drip fertigation may improve the inflorescence attributes, yield, biochemical activity and soil nutrient status of chrysanthemum.

Pesticide overuse can have a negative effect on the development processes of non-target plants.

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