Mitigation of Osmotic Stress in Cotton for the Improvement in Growth and Yield through Inoculation of Rhizobacteria and Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria Coated Diammonium Phosphate

Abstract

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is one of the major fiber crops. Its production is under threat due to scarcity of water resources under a changing climatic scenario. Limited water availability also decreases the uptake of phosphorus, and less uptake of phosphorus can deteriorate the quality attributes of cotton fiber. There is a need to introduce bio-organic amendments which can mitigate osmotic stress on a sustainable basis. Inoculation of rhizobacteria can play an imperative role in this regard. Rhizobacteria can not only improve the growth of roots but also enhance the availability of immobile phosphorus in soil. That is why the current experiment was conducted to explore and compare the efficacy of sole application of diammonium phosphate (DAP) over plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB) coated DAP on growth and quality attributes of cotton under artificially induced osmotic stress at flowering stage. The impact of phosphorus levels was found to be significant on the plant height, leaf area, average boll weight, stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, and seed cotton yield, while the irrigation effect was significant on all the parameters. The PGPR coated phosphorus performed better as compared to other treatments under normal irrigation and osmotic stress. Results showed that PGPR coated phosphorus increased by 29.47%, 21.01%, 41.11%, 32.73%, 15.63% and 22.89% plant height, average boll weight, stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, fiber length, and seed cotton yield respectively. In conclusion, PGPR coated DAP can be helpful to get higher cotton productivity as compared to control and sole application of DAP under normal irrigation and osmotic stress.

Effect of Short-Term Zero Tillage and Legume Intercrops on Soil Quality, Agronomic and Physiological Aspects of Cotton under Arid Climate

“…The higher seed cotton yield and mung bean yield increased the net benefits and, ultimately, economic benefit ratio. The results and findings showed the significance of the issues, as similar aspects have been investigated in previous studies, under arid to semi-arid climatic conditions [56][57][58][59][60][61].…”

Drought Stress Alleviation by Potassium-Nitrate-Containing Chitosan/Montmorillonite Microparticles Confers Changes in Spinacia oleracea L.

“…Typical symptoms of drought stress are leaf yellowing, leaf rolling, permanent wilting, early leaf senescence, and stunted growth. Extensive damage to root growth is documented in the plants that are subjected to water-deficit conditions [6,10]. Deep, elongated roots with capillary structures help plants to uptake more water from deeper soil layers [8].…”

Physiological and biochemical responses of Brassica napus L. to drought‐induced stress by the application of biochar and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria

“…Different volatile components like 2,3-butanediol and acetoin are released by some PGPR strains that enhance growth of Arabidopsis (Basu et al, 2021). Seed cotton productivity, length of plant, and bacterial population in rhizosphere are significantly increased by diazotroph bacterial inoculation (Majid et al, 2020). Combination of double and triple IBA, carbohydrates and bacteria are most active in improving root capability and more value in rooting in case of apple (Karakurt, Aslantas, Ozkan, & Guleryuz, 2009).…”