MICRORGANISMS PROMOTING PLANT GROWTH: SELECTION OF PROMISING SPECIES AND SYNERGIC COMBINATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE

Abstract

Plant growth promoting microorganisms are already used in agriculture due to their numerous benefits, but the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their combination with other microorganisms still needs to be better explored. Thus, the objective of the work will be to identify microorganisms with potential agricultural use and synergistic combinations of plant growth promoting bacteria or the fungus Trichoderma harzianum with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the crops of harvested corn and winter beans. Initially, a trial will be installed in pots with corn and beans in a randomized block design with three repetitions whose treatment will be the inoculation with 15 non-mycorrhizal microorganisms and the control treatment. The vegetative development, accumulation of N and P and physiological aspects of the inoculated plants will be evaluated. After that, the best species will be chosen to be tested in the field, in combination or not with the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus clarum, in the municipality of Selvíria/MS, crops 2021-2023. Crop corn will be grown in 2021/22, followed by winter beans in 2022 and repeating the cycle in 2022/23. In the field experiment, evaluations of yield and yield components, leaf N and P contents, leaf chlorophyll index, and percentage of mycorrhizal colonization in roots will be performed. In the soil, microbiological aspects and phosphorus fractionation will be evaluated. An evaluation of the microbial diversity of the roots of field bean plants will be made in 2022.