“…Longer and fine roots, for the same mass (same metabolic consumption), present a larger surface area and, consequently, in a higher capacity to absorb nutrients, mainly those with low mobility in the soil, such as phosphorus. The rhizobacterium evaluated in the present study (B. subtilis-34) has been shown to be efficient in promoting the growth of vegetable, common bean, and banana plants (Lopes et al, 2019a;Lopes et al, 2019b;Santos et al, 2019;Lopes et al, 2018). Most studies found in the literature evaluated rhizobacteria and water-retaining materials separately (Basyony and Abo-Zaid, 2018;Andrade et al, 2023), thus neglecting the potential synergistic effects of the combined use of these agents.…”